Newcastle United ditch luxury for Cristiano Ronaldo visit as Eddie Howe seeks another PIF boost

Newcastle United will head to Saudi Arabia during the international break for a dose of warm weather training while a bunch of their senior stars jet across the globe for their respective nations.

Eddie Howe's side are no strangers to this sort of trip after previously jetting to Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi, as well as Dubai for a period of sunshine while Premier League action is suspended. In March 2022, the Magpies jetted to the Nad Al Sheba Sports Complex in Dubai, which has previously played host to Manchester United, Arsenal and Celtic.

The luxury location had everything a player could wish for, playing home to a fully-equipped gym, multiple pools, saunas, altitude chambers, cryo chambers, climate chambers and a performance lab. This, on top of two full-size football pitches and courts for squash, padel, beach football and volleyball.

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This time around, it appears Newcastle won't be enjoying the same amount of trip as they prepare to train at Al-Nassr's Al-Awwal Park Stadium; a 25,000-seater stadium that plays host to Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane, Aymeric Laporte and former, rumoured Newcastle transfer target Mohamed Simakan. Newcastle's majority owners, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund [PIF], own Al-Nassr and three other clubs in the Saudi top flight.

The ground was opened in 2015 after four years of construction, with Al-Nassr making it their home venue in 2020. PIF's investment in the club in recent years was part of a mammoth push to make the Saudi Pro League one of the best in the world as the country bid to host the 2034 World Cup.

Despite using the Riyadh stadium, Newcastle aren't expected to take part in any friendly matches during their brief stint in the country. Howe's side beat Al-Hilal 5-0 during a trip to the country in 2022, while they also recorded the same scoreline against Steven Taylor's Gulf United during their trip to Dubai in the same year.

Newcastle have benefitted from these sorts of trips in the past few years, returning to Premier League action and finding a solid run of form. Howe will be hoping for the same sort of boost this time around as he makes use of the PIF-backed facilities.

The Newcastle boss issued a strong response when pressed over the decision to take his team to the Middle East midway through a season in October 2022, insisting the decision was taken for footballing reasons, rather than due to the close links with the club's ownership.

"We've made a football decision. We've looked at the World Cup break, what's the best thing for the team," said Howe over two years ago. "The best thing for the team, I believe, is to take the team away like you would in pre-season, away from distractions, a chance to really train the group, enhance the team spirit with hopefully some good weather, so that's what we've done. We've made it from a purely footballing backdrop."