{"id":649277,"date":"2026-05-04T15:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649277\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T15:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:37:08","slug":"ronaldo-nears-first-major-trophy-at-al-nassr-but-rivals-find-it-a-little-too-convenient-saudi-pro-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/649277\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo nears first major trophy at Al-Nassr but rivals find it a little too convenient | Saudi Pro League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo is close to his first major trophy since signing for Al-Nassr in December 2022<\/a> but it is going to be tight. With three games of the Saudi Pro League remaining, his side are five points clear of their Riyadh rivals Al-Hilal, who amazingly are second despite not losing any of their 30 matches under Simone Inzaghi (also amazingly, the Italian is under some pressure). Al-Hilal have a game in hand, though, and the two meet next Tuesday in what could be a title decider. At a time when Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is cutting back<\/a> on certain sporting investments, one of its highest-profile acquisitions is poised to make headlines.<\/p>\n

Some have complained that it is all a little too convenient and that the authorities are engineering a Ronaldo win. Ivan Toney has scored 27 goals for Al-Ahli but that has not been enough to stop the Jeddah giants from falling out of a race that until the last few weeks was a four-way affair.<\/p>\n

After penalty decisions not given in a 1-1 draw with Al-Fayha in early April, the England striker let loose. \u201cWhen we tried to talk to the referee, he told us: \u2018Focus on the AFC [Asian Football Confederation Champions League],\u2019\u201d Toney said. \u201cHow can the referee say this? \u2026 It\u2019s clear what is being influenced here \u2026\u201d When asked who was benefiting from all this, Toney said: \u201cWe know who. Who are we chasing?\u201d<\/p>\n

His teammate Galeno agreed. \u201cHand over the trophy, that\u2019s what they want,\u201d the Brazilian winger wrote on X. \u201cThey want to knock us out of the championship by any means necessary, they want to hand the trophy to one person, a total lack of respect for our club.\u201d Both players were fined by the Saudi Arabia football federation\u2019s disciplinary and ethics committee.<\/p>\n

Al-Ahli went on to win the AFC Champions League<\/a> on 25 April, and when they went to Riyadh to face Al-Nassr four days later, the away fans sang of their continental triumph. The defender Merih Demiral ran around the pitch showing his medal to the home fans, who have never seen Al-Nassr win Asia\u2019s premier title (though Al-Nassr are in the final of the Europa League equivalent, the imaginatively titled AFC Champions League Two on 16 May against Gamba Osaka of Japan).<\/p>\n

Al-Nassr had the last laugh with a 2-0 victory in a bad-tempered game. After Ronaldo scored his 970th career goal, Kingsley Coman lashed home in the last minute. The former Bayern Munich forward then celebrated right in front of Toney and was joined by teammates, including Ronaldo, who then took aim again after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is not good for the league,\u201d Ronaldo said of the criticism. \u201cEveryone complains. This is football, this is not a war. We know we have to fight, everyone wants to win. But not everything is allowed. I am going to speak at the end of the season because I\u2019ve seen many, many bad things.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany players have complained, doing posts on Instagram, on Facebook, speaking about the referees, speaking about the league, speaking about the project. This is not good. This is not the goal of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sadio Man\u00e9 is another of Jorge Jesus\u2019s big names at Al-Nassr. Photograph: Reuters<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been all good fun, though, and the 41-year-old added to it by sitting out two league games<\/a> at the start of the year, because, so reports went, he felt PIF, which then owned the \u201cBig Four\u201d clubs, favoured Al-Hilal.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo may be happier now because last month the fund sold 70% of Al-Hilal to Kingdom Holding Company, a firm run by Prince al-Waleed bin Talal, a member of Saudi Arabia\u2019s royal family. The sale, the fund said, \u201caligns with PIF\u2019s strategy to maximise returns and redeploy capital within the domestic economy\u201d as it seeks to drive \u201cthe development and diversification of Saudi Arabia\u201d.<\/p>\n

It adds to the off-pitch headlines of changes in the country\u2019s strategy to become a sporting powerhouse. The image of the megastar lifting the trophy would surely go down well with authorities but Al-Nassr\u2019s 3-1 loss on Sunday to Al-Qadsiah, coached by Brendan Rodgers, ended a run of 20 wins in all competitions and could bring about a grandstand finish, even if Al-Nassr are still in the driving seat.<\/p>\n

Al-Nassr\u2019s success is down to appointing Jorge Jesus, the wily Portuguese veteran who led them on a world record 34-game winning streak two years ago.<\/p>\n

Under Jesus, the stars still shine but as part of a more cohesive and coherent system and Al-Nassr, for the first time since Ronaldo arrived, look like a real team. In attack, Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix has been excellent along with Sadio Man\u00e9 and the former France international Coman, and the defence, featuring the centre-backs I\u00f1igo Mart\u00ednez and Mohamed Simakan along with Saudi players such as Nawaf Boushal and Abdulelah al-Amri, has excelled.<\/p>\n

And then there is Ronaldo. Despite 25 league goals, he may miss out on a third successive golden boot but a first Saudi Pro League<\/a> title would more than make up for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo is close to his first major trophy since signing for Al-Nassr in December 2022 but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-649277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}