Luis Castro praises Cristiano Ronaldo and Otavio and intends to win Al Nassr titles

Portuguese coach Luis Castro, currently at Al-Nasr, praised the performance of Cristiano Ronaldo and Otavio this Thursday, two Portuguese internationals in the employ of the Saudi club who are aiming to “win trophies”.

“Cristiano, like all the players in the team, gave it his all. He will always be an example of how he works and recovers every day, how he eats, how he rests and how he looks at his profession, which he got into. love since … since he was a child and this passion continues inside him, it is noticeable every day,” he said.

Luis Castro spent several days in Portugal during a stopover for national team obligations and made press statements at Lisbon’s Humberto Delgado airport before returning to Saudi Arabia, where he traveled with a “spirit of adventure”.

“Together with Cristiano, there are other world-class players, as well as those who want to become them, who daily generate very good energy to achieve success. This is what happened and it is very good to train them because they all understand that football requires them to perform better every day. It’s very nice,” he stressed.

As for Otavio, who signed from Porto this summer for €60m on the transfer market, Luis Castro noted the need to have players with “very strong personalities and character” to endure a few chances in every game.

“In addition to signing good players, they have to be players with a very strong personality and character. Only a strong character can withstand such high temperatures. We played in 35 to 40°C and gave a lot of ourselves. Otavio came in as a characterization player for the position and it was a very good adaptation. He is a player who gives himself a lot to the game and he has colleagues in midfield who also have very strong pace. He is another one who can help us. try to win titles,” he stressed.

That goal marks the current season, suggested Luis Castro, who started his journey at Al-Nasr by winning the Arab Champions Cup, although the championship did not start in the best way, when he suffered two defeats in two starting rounds.

“We didn’t start the league very well. In the first two rounds we had failures that did not bring us points. The season started with a trophy, and we see winning trophies as the goal of the season. We won one, now we will look for the rest that we have ahead of us. We will do our best,” the 62-year-old coach said.

The transfer market in Saudi Arabia remains open, but Al-Nasr has eight foreign players, the maximum limit allowed by Saudi League rules: Laporte, Alex Telles, Fofana, Brozovic, Talisca, Otavio, Mane and Ronaldo.

“[O dinheiro] There seems to be no end to it, but it is because I was struggling to sign a contract and was losing the players I wanted. The club signed others they wanted, but along the way we lost some,” he said of the transfer market that will end.

Al-Nasr is currently sixth in the Saudi Arabian Championship with nine points in a competition led by Al-Hilal, Jorge Jesus and Ruben Neves, and Al-Taawon with 13.