Saudi Arabia made Cristiano Ronaldo an offer he couldn’t refuse last year: almost $200 million to play only two and a half years for Saudi club Al-Nassr in Riyadh, according to ESPN. Ronaldo shouldn’t have taken the money.

The despotic, oil-rich regime wants you to forget about the 147 people Amnesty International said they executed last year, the hundreds of political activists they imprisoned, and the journalist they murdered and dismembered inside their Turkish consulate in 2018. That’s why it invested over $3 billion into likely unfruitful sporting ventures in 2022, and threw over half a billion at an aging soccer star.

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, has continued its attempt to “sportswash” the country’s global image by distracting from its abhorrent human rights record, investing billions into sporting ventures and the good press that comes with them.

Ronaldo is just the regime’s latest project.

The Saudi investment group took over Premier League club Newcastle in 2021 for $400 million, according to CBS Sports. After sponsoring last summer’s men’s World Cup, Saudi Arabia nabbed a sponsorship of this summer’s Women’s World Cup, to the outrage of co-hosts New Zealand and Australia. The Saudi regime earned the 2027 Asian Cup this week, and is expected to make a bid for the 2030 world cup.

Another example: the new, Saudi-funded LIV golf league. The PIF has already contributed $2 billion to the venture, enough to attract stars Cameron Smith, Dustin Johnson, and even Phil Mickelson. The league even scored a long-awaited TV contract with American television network CW just two weeks ago. 

If you’re looking to make a buck, investing in an upstart golf league isn’t your best option. That’s what financial consultants told the Saudi regime, according to documents obtained by the New York Times in December. They said investment into the golf league would be unlikely to turn a profit. The Saudis invested anyway, because they aren’t in it for the money – they’re trying to cleanse their global image.

The Kingdom wants to be known as the country behind a big-name golf league, or the host of a World Cup, rather than as a regime that tyrannizes its political dissidents.

Dana Ahmed, a representative of Amnesty International, said Ronaldo should “use his considerable public platform to draw attention to human rights issues in the country.”

We can only hope he will. Criticism from Ronaldo would be a blow to the Saudi regime – the soccer star has 526 million instagram followers and 106 million on Twitter. But we shouldn’t expect dissent from Ronaldo. Who bites the hand that feeds them $200 million?

Ronaldo was the latest athlete to cave to the cash, and there will be more to come. But any professional athlete who takes money from a Saudi sporting venture becomes an agent in their sportswashing mission. A note to all sportsmen: don’t be the next to fall.