While I like the idea of Ronaldo and Messi in the A-League its totally unworkable. No matter how wealthy an owner is, they cannot simply bypass the competition's framework. The A-League operates under strict Total Player Payment regulations (and the hard-cap push toward a $3M cap with heavily restricted marquee slots).
While CFG could comfortably pay a player millions out of pocket, the league rules limit how many marquee players can sit outside that cap. Unless the competition structurally permits an "open slather" spending model which the APL is actively moving away from to curb club cash burn and even multi-billionaire-backed clubs are legally boxed in.
Even if an owner could spend freely, why would they? To justify signing a global icon on massive wages, a club needs a commercial ecosystem that can recoup those costs through surging ticket sales, massive global TV rights uplifts, and high-value sponsorship deals. In Australia, because the broadcast rights are locked into a lean model and media cut-through is heavily fragmented against the AFL and NRL, a multi-million-dollar marquee is a financial black hole for the individual club owner.
CFG are of course different to your normal everyday billionaires but....
While they has the financial firepower to buy a small country, they treat Melbourne City as a systematic talent pipeline and regional footprint not a personal checkbook to set on fire for a weekend headline. Even if yhey could bring in Ronaldo and thwe little fella...