Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Al Nassr secured the Saudi Pro League title with a 4-1 win over Damac yesterday, ending the star forward’s long quest for domestic trophy.
A spectacular free-kick and close-range finish, both in the final half-hour, clinched the win Al Nassr needed on the last night of the season. Al Hilal finished just two points behind, says AFP.
Ronaldo, 41, who had not won a major club trophy since capturing Serie A with Juventus in 2020, arrived in the oil-rich desert nation amid a fanfare in 2023, and sobbed as he watched the last minutes from the bench.
He adds the Saudi championship to his English, Spanish and Italian triumphs and five Champions League medals.
Al Nassr moved 2-0 ahead but were pulled back to 2-1 when Ronaldo’s free-kick on 63 minutes escaped the goalie and a jungle of legs to strike the far corner.
He scored again with nine minutes left, getting a cut-back on the edge of the six-yard box and slamming it high into the net.
The all-time top men’s international goalscorer with 143 goals will be having a sixth try at the World Cup after being chosen in Portugal’s squad this week.
Pioneer of the desert
Ronaldo’s January 2023 switch to Al Nassr after an unpleasant second term at Manchester United opened the way to a series of big-money Saudi acquisitions.
Ronaldo agreed a two-and-a-half-year deal worth 200 million euros, with an option to extend until June 2025, and joined the likes of Neymar and Karim Benzema.
The declared purpose was to transform the Pro League into one of the top five football competitions in the world in terms of the quality of players, the size of crowds and economic success. But there’s been little interest internationally.
Saudi Arabia was approved in December 2024 as host of the 2034 World Cup, a coup as it seeks to detach its economy off oil and attract business and tourists, partly through the buzz of sports.
A highly visible ambassador, Ronaldo has a record 664 million Instagram followers, as Saudi Arabia strives to turn the page on the ultra-conservative image that has defined it for decades.
Qatar, the world’s biggest oil exporter and the home of Islam, has been accused of “sportswashing”, using sport to deflect human rights concerns, as it has ploughed money into Formula 1, golf, boxing and tennis alongside football.
Some of the most wacky spending on economic diversification, including large tourist ventures and NEOM, a futuristic desert metropolis, is being pared back.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said this month it was abandoning the breakaway LIV Golf circuit, after reportedly investing more than US$5 billion in a venture that fractured the sport.
The flow of big money transfers has slowed to a trickle, and expensive football acquisitions have dried up too.
Crying and a protest
Ronaldo was the best scorer in the Pro League in his first two seasons and his career total now stands at 973 – tantalisingly close to the 1,000-goal mark.
His Saudi stay has not been all good sailing. In 2024 he was reduced to tears after Al Nassr lost the King’s Cup final to Al Hilal on penalties denying him his first Saudi trophy.
This season he was missing from Al Nassr’s line-up for three games in an apparent protest of Benzema’s transfer to rival team Al Hilal.
Al Hilal and Al Nassr were part of a stable of Saudi clubs controlled by the Public Investment Fund, the country’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund.
The 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup was the only prize that Ronaldo has lifted with Al Nassr until yesterday. He was also sad that Al Nassr fell to Gamba Osaka in the AFC Champions League Two final on Saturday.
About the Author
