Having started off with a promising start in the Premier League with Aston Villa at the age of 21, striker Jhon Duran suddenly moved to Al Nassr to team up with Cristiano Ronaldo. The offer with a transfer fee of about 80 million euros (more than 2 trillion VND), a salary increase of 5 times, was something that both Aston Villa and Jhon Duran could not refuse.
Specifically, when moving to Saudi Arabia to play, the Colombian player received a salary of 20 million euros per year. On average, Jhon Duran earned 1.5 billion VND per day, more than 10 billion VND per week.
This salary is only 10% of Cristiano Ronaldo’s at Al Nassr. However, for a young player who has not achieved much, this is still a very large number, enough for him to temporarily put his journey in Europe on hold for a few years to earn money.
Playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo is also considered a special “treat” that Jhon Duran is interested in. “I am eager to learn from the best football star in the world. I am looking forward to growing up alongside him,” said the Colombian player.
In addition to the huge salary increase, Jhon Duran also had a special request approved by his home club. The striker did not move to Riyadh or any other city in Saudi Arabia. Instead, Cristiano Ronaldo’s new teammate rented a house in Bahrain, about 1,000 kilometers away from the team’s headquarters.
Jhon Duran travels to the training ground by plane every day, taking about an hour and a half. It is unclear whether Al Nassr will arrange a private jet to pick up the new player or let him use a commercial plane. Al Nassr’s largest shareholder is the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), which also owns an airline.
The reason Jhon Duran made this request to his new team is related to his girlfriend, an epidemiologist. The couple are not married and under Saudi Arabian law, they cannot live together in the same house. There are some exceptions – like Cristiano Ronaldo – but the procedure is complicated and not everyone is so privileged.
