Agent Dr Erkut Sogut says it's too soon to consider the impact of Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Al Nassr on football in Saudi Arabia and across the Middle East.
While supportive of Ronaldo's decision to make the move to Al Nassr after the controversial release from his Manchester United contract in November, Sogut says it will take several years before any genuine call can be made if the switch was a success.
Speaking to Tribalfootball.com, Sogut explained: “I think that time will show us about this possibility.
"We can talk for hours about this, but time will show us if this thing will happen, I think we should wait 2-3 years and after this period of time we can see the results of this move and how the Saudi Arabian League has developed."
Indeed, Sogut says the Saudi Pro League will need more major names like Ronaldo to continue the momentum garnered from the Portugal captain's arrival.
He continued, "Today we just can assume what could happen, but in the end we don't know what players will follow there, how the league will develop, how the economy will develop and for me the best thing to do is to wait and see how the league will develop because in football you never know what will happen."
For his part, after a slow start, Ronaldo has settled in quickly at Al Nassr and has nine goals in eight SPL games. Sogut can understand the motivation behind the veteran's decision to move to the Middle East, where he argues Ronaldo can further expand his "brand".
He said, “Ronaldo is coming towards the end of his career, he is not young anymore. The Middle East is a huge region for football and they love Cristiano a lot there. I think Ronaldo has achieved everything, he's won everything, he played in the best leagues in Europe, he proved himself in La Liga, in the Premier League and in the Serie A and also with the National Team he won the Euro 2016. So he is at that stage of career where he wants to build his brand.
"Ronaldo for me is more a brand than a player, he is a worldwide brand and now he is working towards building his brand more and more across the world."
The star of Sogut's stable is former Arsenal and Real Madrid midfielder Mesut Ozil. The German, now in Turkey with Istanbul Basaksehir, played with Ronaldo at Real Madrid. And Sogut admits, in different circumstances, Ozil could have been playing against - or even with - Ronaldo in the SPL.
"Yes definitely, he (Ozil) has received offers from different countries in the Middle East," revealed Sogut, "but it was not the right time to go there.
"He wanted to stay and play in Turkey where he is happy. He has Turkish heritage, he is in Istanbul, he loves the fans there and his decision was to go to Turkey, stay there and enjoy Istanbul."
