Nassr’s Portuguese forward #07 Cristiano Ronaldo (C) together with teammates have a good time with the trophy after winning the Saudi Pro League title at the tip of their football match against Damac on the Al-Awwal Park Stadium in Riyadh on May 21, 2026. (Photo by Fayez NURELDINE / AFP)
Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Al Nassr clinched the Saudi Pro League title with a 4-1 win over Damac on Thursday, ending his long wait for domestic silverware.
A trademark free-kick and a close-range finish, each in the ultimate half-hour, sealed the win Al Nassr needed on the last night of the season, with Al Hilal ending just two points behind.
Ronaldo, 41, who was with no major club trophy since winning Serie A with Juventus in 2020, arrived within the oil-rich desert kingdom to great acclaim in 2023, wept as he watched the ultimate minutes from the bench.
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Nassr and Cristiano Ronaldo.A bond between an incredible club and a pacesetter who embraced it. 💛 https://t.co/wDg8NHWkIs pic.twitter.com/fi90DSPDJ5
— AlNassr FC (@AlNassrFC_EN) May 22, 2026
He adds the Saudi championship to his English, Spanish and Italian titles and five Champions League medals.
Al Nassr took a 2-0 lead but were back to 2-1 before Ronaldo’s free-kick on 63 minutes evaded the goalkeeper and a forest of legs to seek out the far corner.
He struck again nine minutes from time, receiving a cut-back on the sting of the six-yard box and smashing high into the online.
Next up for the all-time leading men’s international goalscorer, with 143 goals, is a sixth crack on the World Cup after he was named in Portugal’s squad this week.
Desert trailblazer
Ronaldo opened the door to a series of big-money Saudi signings when he joined Al Nassr in January 2023 following an unhappy second spell at Manchester United.
Neymar and Karim Benzema were amongst those to follow after Ronaldo inked a two-and-a-half-year deal estimated at 200 million euros, prolonged for 2 years in June 2025.
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The stated aim was to show the Pro League into one among the world’s top five football competitions measured by the standard of players, stadium attendances and industrial success. International interest has been muted, nevertheless.
In December 2024, Saudi Arabia was confirmed as host of the 2034 World Cup, a coup because it pushes to decouple its economy from oil and attract business and tourists, partly via the excitement of sports.
With a record 664 million Instagram followers, Ronaldo has been a highly-visible ambassador as Saudi Arabia tries to show the page on the ultra-conservative image that has defined it for many years.
The world’s biggest oil exporter and residential of Islam has been accused of “sportswashing” — using sport to deflect human rights criticism — because it has invested in Formula 1, golf, boxing and tennis alongside football.
Among the more outlandish spending on economic diversification, including sprawling tourist developments and NEOM, a futuristic city within the desert, is being reined in.
This month, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said it was exiting the breakaway LIV Golf tour, after reportedly ploughing greater than $5 billion right into a enterprise that split the game.
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Expensive football signings have also waned with the stream of big-money transfers slowing to a trickle.
Tears and a protest
Ronaldo was the Pro League’s top scorer in his first two seasons, together with his profession tally now at 973 — tantalisingly near the 1,000-goals milestone.
His Saudi stint has not all the time been smooth. In 2024, he was left in floods of tears when Al Nassr lost the King’s Cup final to Al Hilal on penalties, denying him his first Saudi title.
This season, he disappeared from Al Nassr’s line-up for 3 games in an apparent protest at Benzema’s transfer to rival team Al Hilal.
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Al Hilal and Al Nassr were among the many stable of Saudi teams owned by the Public Investment Fund, the country’s $900 billion sovereign wealth fund.
Before Thursday, Ronaldo’s only silverware with Al Nassr was the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup. He was also disenchanted on Saturday, when Al Nassr lost to Gamba Osaka within the AFC Champions League Two final.