Club World Cup participating team and chairman of the Vidard Club from Morocco, Ait Mena, recently confirmed in an interview with After Foot that they had hoped to sign a short-term contract with Ronaldo to play the Club World Cup, but the two sides had never had substantial negotiations.

"C Ronaldo won't come for money, he doesn't need money, I don't know how such rumors spread. But I did contact one of his agents three or four months ago, which was my friend, and I told him, 'Don't Ronaldo want to participate in the Club World Cup?' He replied, 'Well, I don't think he won't.' We've never had substantive negotiations, we do want to sign him, but from a financial perspective, we can't pay his salary unless he's interested in us, and I've even gone to him two or three times."