Cristiano Ronaldo and Al-Nassr: The Title Race in Saudi Arabia
Cristiano Ronaldo came to Saudi Arabia for nights like the one that is looming in Riyadh. A title race boiling over, accusations flying, referees under the microscope and the biggest star of all standing in the middle of the storm, five points clear with three games to go and a first major trophy at Al‑Nassr within reach.
It is anything but straightforward.
An unbeaten chaser and a looming showdown
Al‑Nassr sit top of the Saudi Pro League, but behind them lurks an anomaly. Al‑Hilal, Riyadh rivals and serial heavyweights, have not lost a single one of their 30 league games under Simone Inzaghi. Thirty played, none beaten, and still they are second.
The table explains the paradox. Al‑Nassr have points on the board; Al‑Hilal have a game in hand. The gap is five. Next Tuesday, the two collide in a match that could decide everything.
This is playing out against a shifting backdrop. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the financial muscle behind the league’s global push, has started to trim certain sporting commitments. Yet one of its most visible imports, Ronaldo, is primed to dominate the narrative again, just when the project needs a headline image of success.
Suspicion, fury and fines
Not everyone is buying the romance of the script.
Al‑Ahli’s Ivan Toney has plundered 27 league goals this season, a return that would normally anchor a title charge. Instead, his club have slipped out of what was, until recently, a four‑way fight for the crown. The goals kept coming; the points did not.
Frustration boiled over in early April after a 1-1 draw with Al‑Fayha, when Al‑Ahli felt key penalty decisions went against them. Toney did not hold back. He claimed that when players tried to question the referee, they were told to “focus on the AFC [Asian Football Confederation Champions League]”, a remark that lit a fuse.
“How can the referee say this?” he asked. “It’s clear what is being influenced here …” Pressed on who stood to gain, Toney delivered the line that has echoed around the league: “We know who. Who are we chasing?”
Galeno, his Brazilian teammate, pushed it even further. “Hand over the trophy, that’s what they want,” he wrote on X. “They 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.”
The Saudi football federation’s disciplinary and ethics committee responded with fines. The message was clear: the title race could be wild, but there were limits to how far the rhetoric could go.
Continental glory and a pointed lap of honour
Al‑Ahli did what they were told to focus on. On 25 April they went and won the AFC Champions League, the region’s premier club prize. Four days later they arrived in Riyadh to face Al‑Nassr with a continental crown in their luggage and a point to prove.
Their travelling fans revelled in it, serenading their new status as Asian champions. Merih Demiral turned the taunting into theatre, sprinting around the pitch and flashing his medal at the home support. Al‑Nassr’s fans, who have never seen their club lift the Champions League, had to watch the celebration from the stands.
Al‑Nassr answered on the scoreboard. They won 2-0 in a match that simmered throughout. Ronaldo struck his 970th career goal. In stoppage time, Kingsley Coman hammered in a second and chose his stage with care, celebrating directly in front of Toney. Teammates swarmed in, Ronaldo among them, as the tension finally spilled into open glee.
The Portuguese forward was not done. After the final whistle, he turned his fire on the criticism surrounding the league.
“I think this is not good for the league,” he said of the complaints. “Everyone 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’ve seen many, many bad things.
“Many 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.”
Politics, power and a shifting landscape
Ronaldo has not always been convinced that the playing field is level. At the start of the year he missed two league games, with reports suggesting he felt PIF, then owners of the “Big Four” clubs, favoured Al‑Hilal.
The power map has since changed. Last month, PIF sold 70% of Al‑Hilal to Kingdom Holding Company, run by Prince al‑Waleed bin Talal. The fund framed the move as part of a broader plan to “maximise returns and redeploy capital within the domestic economy” and to accelerate “the development and diversification of Saudi Arabia”.
The sale fed into a wider recalibration of Saudi sport. The ambition to become a global powerhouse remains, but the levers are being rearranged. In that context, an image of Ronaldo, the face of the project, hoisting the league trophy would carry political as well as sporting weight.
Yet the script has started to wobble. On Sunday, Al‑Nassr lost 3-1 to Al‑Qadsiah, a side coached by Brendan Rodgers, snapping a 20‑match winning run in all competitions. The defeat has not knocked them out of the driving seat, but it has opened the door to a grandstand finish.
Jesus, structure and a real team at last
If Al‑Nassr do get over the line, much of the credit will belong to Jorge Jesus. The veteran Portuguese coach, who oversaw a world‑record 34‑game winning streak with the club two years ago, has returned to impose order on the chaos that often surrounds Ronaldo’s teams.
Under Jesus, the star names have been stitched into a coherent plan. For the first time since Ronaldo landed in Riyadh in December 2022, Al‑Nassr resemble a complete side rather than a collection of marquee signings orbiting one man.
João Félix has flourished in attack, linking fluently with Sadio Mané and Coman. Behind them, the defence has hardened. Iñigo Martínez and Mohamed Simakan anchor the back line, flanked and supported by Saudi talents such as Nawaf Boushal and Abdulelah al‑Amri. The structure has allowed the front line to attack with abandon, knowing there is steel behind them.
There is more on the horizon too. Al‑Nassr are in the final of the AFC Champions League Two – the continent’s Europa League equivalent – where they will face Gamba Osaka of Japan on 16 May. It is not the elite crown their fans crave, but it is another stage and another shot at silverware.
For Ronaldo, the immediate question is sharper. Three league games, a five‑point cushion, an unbeaten rival chasing and a country watching to see whether its most famous import can turn spectacle into supremacy.
If he lifts that trophy, the image will travel far beyond Riyadh. If he doesn’t, the noise around this turbulent, lavish, combustible project will only grow louder.
