Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo will lead Al Nasr to the Saudi Professional League title in the final game before the 2026 World Cup.
Published May 21, 2026
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Al Nasr clinched the Saudi Pro League title with a 4-1 victory over Damak, ending their long wait for a domestic silver medal.
A trademark free-kick and close-range finish in the final half-hour of Thursday’s match sealed the victory Al Nasr needed on the final night of the season, with Al Hilal finishing just two points behind.
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Ronaldo, 41, who had not won a trophy with a major club since winning Serie A with Juventus in 2020, arrived in the oil-rich desert kingdom in 2023 to rave reviews and cried as he watched his final moments on the bench.
He added the Saudi championship to his English, Spanish and Italian titles and five Champions League medals.
Al Nasr led 2-0 but were brought back to 2-1 by the time Ronaldo took a free kick in the 63rd minute, evading the goalkeeper and a forest of legs and firing into the far corner.
He struck again with nine minutes remaining, receiving a cutback on the edge of the six-yard box and smashing it high into the net.
The man’s all-time leading scorer with 143 goals will now aim for his sixth World Cup appearance after being selected for Portugal this week.
Ronaldo joined Al Nasr in January 2023 after a disappointing second year at Manchester United, opening the door to a series of big-money signings for the Saudi player.
Neymar and Karim Benzema were among those to follow after Ronaldo signed a two-and-a-half-year contract worth an estimated $232 million, with a two-year extension due in June 2025.
The stated goal was to transform the professional league into one of the top five football competitions in the world as measured by player quality, stadium attendance and commercial success. However, international interest has slowed.
In December 2024, Saudi Arabia was approved to host the 2034 World Cup. Saudi Arabia is in a coup d’état, weaning its economy from oil and attracting business and tourists, with the help of sports talk.
With a record 664 million followers on Instagram, Ronaldo has become a highly visible ambassador as Saudi Arabia seeks to shake off the ultra-conservative image that has defined it for decades.
The world’s biggest oil exporter and stronghold of Islam has invested in Formula 1, golf, boxing and tennis, as well as soccer, and has been accused of “sportswashing” – using sport to deflect criticism of human rights.
Some of the more outlandish spending on economic diversification, such as the vast tourism development and the futuristic desert city of NEOM, has been curtailed.
This month, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund announced it was pulling out of the LIV Golf Tour after it reportedly poured more than $5 billion into a venture that has divided the sport.
As the flow of high-priced transfer fees slows down little by little, the number of contracts for high-priced soccer players is also decreasing.
Ronaldo was the Pro League’s leading scorer in his first two seasons and now has 973 career goals, approaching the 1,000-goal milestone.
His stint in Saudi Arabia was not always smooth sailing. In 2024, he shed tears when Al Nasr lost to Al Hilal on penalties in the King’s Cup final, missing out on their first Saudi title.
This season, he disappeared from Al Nasr’s lineup for three games in an apparent protest against Benzema’s transfer to rival team Al Hilal.
Al Hilal and Al Nasr were among the stable of Saudi teams owned by the $900 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
Before Thursday, Ronaldo’s only silver medal against Al Nasr came in the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup. He was also disappointed when Al Nasr lost to Gamba Osaka in the AFC Champions League 2 final on Saturday.
