Cristiano Ronaldo, double and tears: Saudi taboo broken, Simone Inzaghi must surrender

At his fourth attempt, Cristiano Ronaldo broke the taboo represented by the Saudi league: his Al-Nassr, in fact, beat Damac 4-1 on the last day of the Saudi Professional League (forcing them to relegation, among other things), thus returning to the title after a full seven years. Repulsed on Thursday evening was the last desperate assault of Simone Inzaghi-led Al-Hilal, which despite winning 1-0 at home to Al-Fayha failed to make up the two-point gap confirmed after the last ninety minutes.

In the match between Al-Nassr and Damac, two other players who have been protagonists in the past years in the major European leagues came to the fore: former Liverpool man Sadio Mané scored the 1-0 goal at 34′, while Kingsley Coman, match-winner of the 2019-2020 Champions League final with the Bayern jersey, put his signature on the doubling goal at 52′.

For Damac, Morlaye Sylla shortened the gap from the penalty spot in 58′, but at that point Cristiano Ronaldo took center stage by netting twice, in the 63′ and 81′, thus sealing the title talk for good. CR7 also took the applause of the audience at the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh, leaving the field to Al-Hamdan with three minutes left in the 90′: although accustomed to successes, the champion from Funchal could not hide his emotion, leaving the field with visibly shiny eyes.

For Al-Hilal, on the pitch at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Burayda, the success signed by Sultan Mandash at 4′ (there was also a missed penalty by Ruben Neves at the beginning of the second half, irrelevant for the final result) was not enough for Simone Inzaghi to win what would have been his first championship outside Italy, although the seasonal satisfaction of winning the King of Champions Cup, the national knockout competition, remains.

As far as Cristiano Ronaldo is concerned, however, this is not his first ever title with the Al-Nassr jersey: the Portuguese had in fact won the Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023, just a few months after his arrival from Manchester United.