Following Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at Al Nassr, Cameroonian captain Vincent Aboubakar claims the Portuguese star tried to talk him out of leaving the Saudi club. The 31-year-old, who had six months left on his contract with Al Nassr, was fully aware that a foreign player would have to be sacrificed in order to secure the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Despite the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star’s efforts to prevent him from leaving, Vincent Aboubakar chose to return to Turkish side Besiktas by signing a two-and-a-half-year contract in January.
Vincent Aboubakar said on Canal+’s Talents d’Afrique, “We talked a bit and his [Cristiano’s] opinion was that he wanted me to stay – I told him no, that I will leave for family reasons,”
“He asked me where my family was, I told him they are in France and so I prefer to go to Turkey, it’s closer.
“And he told me ‘it’s better, if your family is really far away, it’s more complicated’. I was firm, I wanted to leave.”
Vincent Aboubakar, who scored twice in the 2022 World Cup, including a game-winning goal against Brazil, joined Al-Nassr from Besiktas in July 2021. Despite scoring 13 goals and providing six assists in 39 games for Riyadh, he stated it was only natural for him to go following Ronaldo’s arrival.
“I left a little angry because it was not easy,” he explained. “When Cristiano arrived, [Al Nassr] coach Rudi Garcia called me into his office and told me that normally an international player has to leave, it’s either me or Jaloliddin Masharipov [from Uzbekistan], either me or Pity. “I told him that I already wanted to leave before and, honestly, as Cristiano was coming, my playing time would be reduced and it was better for me to leave. “I had offers, including one from Besiktas. They wanted me to stay until the end of the season. I said ‘no honestly president I prefer to leave’. “It was a bit complicated but finally they let me go.”
Vincent Aboubakar finished top scorer at the postponed African Cup of Nations in February 2022, scoring eight goals, the most since 1998, when Benni McCarthy of South Africa and Hossam Hassan of Egypt each scored seven.
Nine months later, Vincent Aboubakar made headlines in Qatar by scoring an outrageous goal for Cameroon in their World Cup Group G encounter against Serbia. He also scored a late winner against Brazil for Cameroon to claim historic 1-0 triumph but his goal was not enough to put them through and he was sent off for removing his shirt in the goal celebration.
Vincent Aboubakar had scored Cameroon’s second goal in the 2017 Nations Cup final, giving the Indomitable Lions a 2-1 win against Egypt and their sixth continental trophy. In 95 appearances for his Central African country, the former Lorient and Valenciennes attacker has 39 goals.