While the worldwide focus has been on Lionel Messi and his Leagues Cup exploits for Inter Miami recently, there are still plenty of people eager to see Cristiano Ronaldo in action with his new Al Nassr teammates.
Despite so many big stars arriving in the Saudi Pro League over the last few weeks, Ronaldo is still by far the biggest and most marketable player in the division. Only one player can rival him in that department, and that’s Messi.
Having failed to win the league title in his first season at Al Nassr, Ronaldo will be determined to hoover up as much silverware as he can in 2023/24, especially given there are some more recognisable opponents now.
Ronaldo and Al Nassr have been taking part in the Arab Champions Cup over the past couple of weeks. After friendly draws against Paris Saint-Germain and Inter, Al Nassr began the group stage which comprised of three matches.
They failed to win the first game, drawing 0-0 with Al Shabab as Ronaldo only featured off the bench. A commanding 4-1 win away against Monastir helped Al Nassr creep towards qualification, with the game locked at 1-1 until the 74th minute when Ronaldo scored and the floodgates opened.
A draw against Zamalek was all Al Nassr needed to make it into the quarter-finals, but they only got that draw thanks to Ronaldo’s 87th-minute equaliser.
The quarter-final will be against Raja Club Athletic, who are based in Morocco. That game is set to take place on 6 August, kicking off at 16:00 BST.
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While Ronaldo is the big man at Al Nassr, he has been joined by a handful of other players who will garner some attention of their own. Seko Fofana and Marcelo Brozovic were the first notable names from the European leagues to join Al Nassr.
Alex Telles then arrived from Manchester United and has already featured in the Arab Club Champions Cup with his new team. The biggest name to arrive this summer is former Liverpool and Bayern Munich attacker Sadio Mane.
It will be a very odd sight for fans of both Man Utd and Liverpool to see Ronaldo and Mane playing in the same team and celebrating together, but the Senegalese forward has been unveiled by Al Nassr and came off the bench in the most recent match.
It’s a move that has proved problematic for Liverpool. They sold Mane to Bayern as part of a deal that featured performance-based add-ons, but his poor season in the Bundesliga and then subsequent departure for the Saudi Pro League means those add-ons have not been triggered.
Al Nassr’s first game of the new Saudi Pro League season is away at Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard’s Al Ettifaq on 14 August, kicking off at 19:00 BST.
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