Al-Hilal’s chief executive, Esteve Calzada, believes a loan move for Cristiano Ronaldo would have been “counter-intuitive” because of their rivalry with Al-Nassr.

Ronaldo was linked with a move to Al-Hilal ahead of their Club World Cup campaign after the five-time Ballon d’Or winner announced he would be leaving Al-Nassr when his contract expired.

The 40-year-old scored 93 goals in 105 appearances in all competitions for Al-Nassr, with speculation building after FIFA introduced an additional transfer window earlier this month because of the revamped tournament taking place in the United States.

Both rival Riyadh clubs are controlled by the country’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Ronaldo is out of contract at Al-Nassr at the end of June.

But Calzada played down the possibility of a move, saying it was unrealistic given the Portugal captain had played for their “biggest opponent” in Al-Nassr.

“We normally don’t comment on players’ situations, particularly because our name is always put out there, when a player or an agent wants to negotiate a better deal with his club, or is trying to move out,” Esteve Calzada told BBC Sport.

“It’s been a very weird transfer window, it’s a very short period of time. You don’t want to take a decision thinking about this tournament that then you have to carry on with for the next two or three years.

“As much as I respect Ronaldo as a huge player, as we all recognise he is, it’s certainly completely counter-intuitive that you bring the biggest player of your biggest opponent to play with you. Even more when it’s only for three to four weeks.

“We’ve been trying to see if we can reinforce the team. But some players were with a mindset of ‘holidays already’, some players were sometimes just asking for too much money, and we’re aware that our team is extremely competitive.

“We’ll go into the traditional transfer window after the tournament still with the biggest ambitions to see if we can reinforce the team even more.”

Calzada was speaking ahead of Al-Hilal’s first game of the Club World Cup, when they take on Ronaldo’s former club Real Madrid on Wednesday at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Ahead of the tournament, Al-Hilal appointed former Inter boss Simone Inzaghi as their new head coach but chose not to make any signings before the competition started.

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes revealed he had turned down the chance to sign for Al-Hilal because he still wants to play “at the highest possible level”.

“I cannot confirm nor deny that we’ve been interested in him,” added Calzada on the situation surrounding Fernandes that happened earlier this month.

“He’s a big player, it fits the profile of player that we think would be good for Al-Hilal, just like many others.

“We’re not refraining from contacting players because we feel they would say no to us.

“The names we are linked with demonstrate the ambition of the club. We believe that we are in a position to pitch [to] any players nowadays.”

The likes of Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez and Napoli’s Victor Osimhen, who spent last season on loan at Galatasaray, have also been linked to the Saudi Pro League side.

While refusing to comment on those two players in particular, Calzada said: “We are targeting the biggest players.

“We are very ambitious, but we need to see hunger from the player himself and the transaction needs to work out both ways.

“The only thing we’ve been trying to remind players and agents is that yes, we are from Saudi, but we don’t print notes here!

“My role as CEO is to make sure we run the club efficiently, so that we can have the biggest budget possible to have big players, but not at any cost.

“That’s why sometimes we basically walk away from negotiations, because we still want players extremely keen on coming, and not only looking for the money.”