Even though the prolific Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo scored an outstanding amount of goals for Al-Nassr, the team did not win any trophies at the end of the season even though they signed the five-time winner of the Ballon d’Or, which is the most prestigious award in the sport of football.
Ronaldo’s chances of winning a piece of hardware were dashed on Saturday, as Al-Ittihad secured the league title with one match to spare, making it their first championship since 2009.
Ronaldo departed Manchester United after giving an angry interview to a television station in which he stated that he did not respect their Dutch manager Erik ten Hag and that he felt he had been betrayed by the club. Ronaldo’s departure from Manchester United occurred in the same year.
Al-Nassr stepped in to sign him until 2025 in a deal that is said to be worth more than 200 million euros ($214.61 million), making him the highest-paid athlete in the world according to Forbes. This deal will keep him playing until 2025.
After playing in 16 league matches, he scored 14 goals but was not on the scoresheet during Saturday’s 1-1 tie with Al-Ettifaq. He was taken out of the game before he could score.
The all-time leading scorer for Real Madrid struggled to perform well in a number of crucial matches, and he frequently took his disappointment out on his teammates.
The Saudi Super Cup was the first title he was unable to win as his club was defeated by Al-Ittihad in the semi-finals of the competition in January. The score was 3-1.
“It is not easy to adjust in the first five, six, or seven games,” the coach said. Now that everyone is familiar with my moves, I am also starting to have a better understanding of the movements of the other players. “We can reach higher levels by taking things one step at a time,” Ronaldo stated.
On March 9, Al-Nassr was dealt a significant setback in their pursuit of the league championship when they were defeated by Al-Ittihad by a score of 1-0. The Brazilian Romarinho scored the game-winning goal, which cast a shadow on Ronaldo’s performance.
Al-Nassr fired head coach Rudi Garcia a month ago, following a tie with Al-Fayha, amid rumors of problems with the team’s players. This dealt a blow to the team’s ambitions of winning the championship for the first time since 2019.
After that, Al-Nassr was defeated by archrivals Al-Hilal by a score of 2-0, and then in the semi-finals of the King’s Cup, they were shocked by a loss to lowly Al-Wehda by a score of 1-0.
Because of this, the only chance that Ronaldo, who is now 38 years old, had of winning a title was if Al-Ittihad experienced some difficulties in the league. However, this did not occur.
Of course, Ronaldo is not solely to blame for Al Nassr’s failures, but it does appear that his presence had an impact on his teammate Anderson Talisca’s performance, since the Brazilian scored 11 goals in 11 games before Ronaldo’s arrival but only seven goals in 11 games with him.