Nasr’s Portuguese forward No. 7 Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring his second goal during the Saudi Professional League football match between Al-Ittihad and Al-Nassr at King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh on May 27, 2024. (Photo: Fayez Nourreddin/AFP)
Cristiano Ronaldo is gearing up for the new season of the Saudi Pro League with the main aim of helping Al Nasr end the dominance of Riyadh rivals Al Hilal.
Ronaldo signed with Al Nasr in December 2022 but is yet to win a domestic trophy with the club. In a social media post this week, he wrote: “New season, same goals.”
Al Hilal won last season with 31 wins and three draws, finishing 14 points behind second-placed Al Nasr.
Read: Ronaldo in tears as Al Nasr lose in King’s Cup final
Hilal beat Ronaldo’s side 4-1 in last weekend’s Saudi Super Cup final and the 18-team league kicks off its season on Thursday.
“I’m very nervous because this season is going to be very tough,” Al-Hilal defender Kalidou Koulibaly, who joined from Chelsea last year, told The Associated Press. “Last year it was a tough championship but we managed to win it. This year every team will be trying to beat Al-Hilal.”
Last summer, a flurry of big-name stars from Europe’s top leagues moved to Saudi Arabia to join Ronaldo in a move that totaled $957 million, according to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. The transfer window closes on Sept. 2, but this summer has been relatively quiet.
Neymar’s return is something of a new signing for Al Hilal, with the Brazilian superstar making just five appearances for the Riyadh club before suffering a serious left knee injury during a World Cup qualifier in October.
“Neymar’s return is very much anticipated among our players,” Koulibaly said. “We know that we still have to wait a little while because of the injury, but people are going to see a great Neymar. You see him in training and he’s still motivated.”
Neymar returned to training last month and local media say he could resume playing in September.
Read: Euro 2024: France beats Ronaldo and Portugal on penalties
In Neymar’s absence, Serbian striker Aleksandar Mitrovic scored 28 league goals last season, second only to Ronaldo’s tally of 35. Al Hilal also have Portugal’s Ruben Neves and Moroccan Yassine Bounou in the goalkeeper position.
Al Nasr’s main addition so far is Brazilian goalkeeper Bento, who replaces Colombian David Ospina. As well as Ronaldo, the Yellows also have Senegalese star Sadio Mane, Croatian midfielder Marcelo Brozovic and defender Aymeric Laporte, who helped Spain win the European Championship in July.
Other challengers include Riyad Mahrez’s Al Ahly of Jeddah and Karim Benzema’s Al-Ittihad, who made the biggest transfer deal so far this summer by paying Aston Villa more than $60 million for French winger Moussa Diaby.
The four clubs being bought by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2023 are the country’s best-supported teams so far.
League officials will be hoping that a more competitive championship race will help boost average attendance, which was just over 8,000 per game last season.
Al Hilal have ambitions both domestically and internationally, with the club set to represent Asia at the expanded FIFA Club World Cup, which kicks off in the United States on June 15.
Al Hilal reached the final in the 2022 competition but lost to Real Madrid.
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“The expectation going into this tournament is that it will be Neymar’s team,” said the 33-year-old Koulibaly, “so we will do everything in training so that he can go there in top condition and help us win the trophy.”
