He was brought in to boost the popularity of football in the country and to add silverware to Al Nassr’s trophy cabinet. While the steady stream of high-profile European transfers to Saudi Arabia suggests the first goal has been achieved, the second is turning into a growing failure.Cristiano Ronaldo will finish his second consecutive season at Al Nassr without a single team trophy. While individual accolades keep piling up, collective success continues to elude him. Under Stefano Pioli, the team crashed out of the domestic cup in the Round of 16, trails Al Ittihad by a daunting eight points in the league, and suffered a painful blow in the AFC Champions League last night.FT | 🇸🇦 Al Nassr 2️⃣-3️⃣ Kawasaki Frontale 🇯🇵𝙂𝙍𝙄𝙏. 𝘿𝙄𝙎𝘾𝙄𝙋𝙇𝙄𝙉𝙀. 𝘿𝙀𝙎𝙄𝙍𝙀. Kawasaki Frontale advance to the #ACLEliteFinal #ACLElite | #NSRvKWF pic.twitter.com/KI7QzdA4s8— #ACLElite | #ACLTwo (@TheAFCCL) April 30, 2025 Al Nassr was stunned 3-2 in the semi-final by Kawasaki Frontale, who reached their first-ever final, where they’ll face Al Ahli in three days.To call this a surprise would be an understatement. Kawasaki, currently 8th in the Japanese league and winless in their last five league games, pulled off a massive upset. According to Transfermarkt, their squad value is nearly 12 times lower than Al Nassr’s.They fielded ten Japanese players and a single Brazilian. In contrast, Ronaldo had the support of stars like Jhon Duran, Sadio Mane, Otavio, Marcelo Brozovic, and Mohamed Simakan from the start, with Aymeric Laporte, Talisca, and others joining later. But that quality didn’t translate to victory—and as the great Johan Cruyff once said, “I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal.”Cristiano Ronaldo at Al Nassr pic.twitter.com/J4QCImPL6h— Total Football (@TotalFootbol) April 30, 2025 Ironically, it was the highest-paid players who cost Al Nassr the most. Both big-money winter signing Jhon Duran and Ronaldo missed sitters in the dying moments that could have forced extra time. The Colombian forward missed a golden one-on-one chance with keeper Yamaguchi in the 88th minute with the score at 2-3. Moments later, Ronaldo rounded the goalkeeper but scuffed his shot wide of an open goal.Yeah blame dhuran when ronaldo literally missed this to tie the game in the 94th minutepic.twitter.com/DEwUcQkmAG https://t.co/hmTji1Rdjm— STOP THAT LAMINE!!! (@echoboss2) April 30, 2025 He came close again just seconds later from a free-kick—one of many he took during the match. The Portuguese star cleverly aimed low past the wall and sent the ball through a tangle of legs, but Yamaguchi was perfectly positioned to deny what turned out to be Al Nassr’s final surge.##NAJAVA_MECA_8894036##
