Don’t obsess about football selling its soul to Saudi Arabia. It sold itself to big money long ago | Elliot Ross

The eye-watering sums on offer for players like Ronaldo are only the latest influx of cash for a game we love, but others own

Not long ago I had an instructive conversation with a football-mad 10-year-old from Belfast. We were walking by a beautiful lake in Donegal. I'd seen him proudly wearing a Liverpool kit on the dancefloor at our Liverpool-mad friend's wedding the previous day, so I asked him about the ongoing English league season. As everyone knows, football is a common language", particularly for people from different generations or cultural backgrounds who might otherwise struggle to know what to talk about together.

I asked him to name his favourite player (Mohamed Salah) and whether he thought Arsenal would be champions (he was certain they wouldn't). He asked had I seen Cristiano Ronaldo's latest goals? I confessed I had not. Ronaldo is smashing all the league records, he said, quoting the latest figures. Yeah, but it's only the Saudi league, I interrupted. It's not a proper league, is it? Who cares?