Cristiano Ronaldo indicated on Monday that he could leave Al Nassr after declaring that a “chapter is over” hours after the Saudi Pro League finished.
The 40-year-old Portuguese forward joined Al Nassr in 2022 after his contract at Manchester United was terminated, and his contract with the Saudi club ends this summer.
Ronaldo, who had previously claimed he was happy to finish his career in Saudi Arabia, has been locked in negotiations with Nassr with the expectation that he would stay.
But, after the club ended another disappointing season with a 3-2 defeat at Al Fateh, the veteran striker posted on social media: “This chapter is over. The story? Still being written. Grateful to all.”
Ronaldo scored his 25th league goal of the season in Monday's defeat to wrap up the SPL's Golden Boot, but with the team limping home in third place, they have missed out on qualification for next season's AFC Champions League Elite.
Last month they suffered a shock defeat to Japan's Kawasaki Frontale in the semi-finals of this year's continental competition.
A special transfer window runs from June 1-10 to allow the 32 clubs involved in the Fifa Club World Cup to sign players.
Al Nassr will not be at the tournament, unlike fellow SPL side Al Hilal.
But Fifa president Gianni Infantino claimed last week that there were teams interested in signing Ronaldo for the tournament.
During an interview with YouTuber and streamer IShowSpeed, Infantino said: “And Ronaldo might play for one of the teams as well at the Club World Cup. There are discussions with some clubs, so if any club is watching and is interested in hiring Ronaldo for the Club World Cup … who knows, who knows.”
Al Ittihad hold title party, Hilal claim second
A little jeopardy had been injected into the final round of SPL fixtures on Monday when Al Nassr won an appeal against Al Orobah for fielding an ineligible player during a 2-1 loss in March.
Al Nassr were awarded the win, which effectively relegated Al Orobah and moved Nassr into third, two points behind Al Hilal, meaning they travelled to Al Fateh in hope of snatching an ACL Elite spot.
That all fell flat, though, as Nassr twice threw away the lead. Ronaldo and Sadio Mane were both on target but Mourad Batna's 81st-minute equaliser and Matheus Machado's 96th-minute winner ensured Fateh finished the season with a win.
By that point, Nassr were probably aware that Al Hilal were cruising to a 2-0 victory over Al Qadsiah - and with it second spot in the table. Aleksandar Mitrovic's first-half penalty and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic's strike finished the job for the manager-less Riyadh giants.
Eight points clear of Hilal were champions Al Ittihad, who finally got their hands on the trophy after their closing 1-0 win over Damac.
Steven Bergwijn scored the only goal for Laurent Blanc's champions before the festivities started in Jeddah.
Saudi Minister of Sports Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faisal presented the silverware to captain Karim Benzema.
Earlier, club legend Ahmed Jamil carried the trophy onto the pitch in front of a packed stadium. It was Ittihad's 14th title and third in the Saudi Pro League era.
At the other end of the table, Al Okhdood staved off relegation with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Al Khaleej, with Al Wehda tumbling into the second tier after a 2-1 loss at Ettifaq.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
• Only about 160,000 have been officially described leaving around 90% undiscovered
• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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UAE squad
Ali Kashief, Salem Rashid, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Khalfan Mubarak, Ali Mabkhout, Omar Abdelrahman, Mohammed Al Attas (Al Jazira), Mohmmed Al Shamsi, Hamdan Al Kamali, Mohammad Barghash, Khalil Al Hammadi (Al Wahda), Khalid Eisa, Mohammed Shakir, Ahmed Barman, Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain), Adel Al Hosani, Al Hassan Saleh, Majid Suroor (Sharjah), Waleed Abbas, Ismail Al Hammadi, Ahmed Khalil (Shabab Al Ahli Dubai) Habib Fardan, Tariq Ahmed, Mohammed Al Akbari (Al Nasr), Ali Saleh, Ali Salmeen (Al Wasl), Hassan Al Mahrami (Baniyas)
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
