Al-Majediyah centre: what Ronaldo sought at Manchester, Al-Hilal provided in Saudi Arabia | Goal.com

Published on 07 Aug 2026 | Reading time: 2 minutes

In November 2022, Al-Nassr captain Cristiano Ronaldo gave an explosive interview to broadcaster Piers Morgan, opening fire on his club at the time, Manchester United. The episode ended with his contract being torn up.

One of the things that angered Ronaldo most was the poor state of the English club's facilities. It drove him out of the Premier League altogether and into a historic move to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

Three and a half years on, Ronaldo has found what he was looking for at Manchester United. Only this time it belongs to the traditional rival, the new home of Al-Hilal in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Al-Hilal staged a ceremony this Friday to open the first team's new training base, named the "Al-Majdiah Sports Centre", at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh.

The Saudi club explained that the new centre aims to develop its infrastructure and provide an integrated professional environment that elevates the players' performance and keeps pace with the best global practices in athlete preparation and recovery.

Stretching over an area exceeding 56,000 square metres, the base includes two grass pitches, an integrated sports performance centre and specialised recovery facilities.

There is also a medical clinic, meeting and lecture halls and a number of support facilities designed to serve the technical, physical and medical needs of the first team, plus a hotel camp, an administrative base and a media centre.

Images published by the Saudi club showed a mural bearing every title the first team has won throughout its history, another featuring pictures from those triumphs, along with a swimming pool and a fitness gym.

Al-Hilal also unveiled technologies being used for the first time at football clubs in the Kingdom, such as a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, an anti-gravity treadmill, a traditional sauna fitted with Himalayan salt and red light recovery.

Another feature is a "hypoxic" training hall, which simulates altitudes and different climatic conditions by controlling oxygen levels, temperatures and humidity. It allows the club to run varied training programmes that mimic different environments and climates.

Al-Hilal's first team will train at the centre for the first time this Friday, their first session in Riyadh after returning from an overseas camp in Austria.

The new season begins next Friday, when Al-Hilal face Al-Faisaly in the opening round of the Roshn League.

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