It might be the last chance for the trolls to laugh at Cristiano Ronaldo. Poor, trophyless Cristiano.
There could only be a few hours left for them to revel in the spartan on-field returns of his time in Saudi Arabia.
The 41-year-old Portugal great could feasibly seal two trophies in five days this week.
If Al Nassr beat their city rivals Al Hilal in the Riyadh derby on Tuesday night, the Saudi Pro League will be theirs. Al Awwal Park could then be the site of another coronation on Saturday, when they host Japan’s Gamba Osaka in the final of the AFC Champions League Two.
A trophy double should quieten a few of his detractors, at least for a bit. When Al Ahli supporters goaded him last month by pointing out their two Asian Champions League titles, he hit back by reminding them he has won Europe’s version five times himself.
If the followers of Hilal or Gamba Osaka tried similar this week, he might point to the fact he has 34 trophies across his career.
That requires some creative accountancy, figuring in a Community Shield he won in England, and the Arab Club Champions Cup that Nassr have won since he’s been there. But, still, not a bad haul.
All of which makes the drought in significant titles across his three-and-a-half-year stint in Saudi Arabia difficult to explain.
Ronaldo has been the face of the Saudi Arabian football revolution, brought in at great expense after the Public Investment Fund took over the running of four of the country’s biggest clubs in 2022.
He is paid more than five times the best paid player in football’s richest league – Erling Haaland in the English Premier League – for the privilege.
He has transformed the global perception of the league. And yet his club’s trophy cabinet has remained bare.
Relative to the other PIF-run clubs, Nassr’s lack of success on Ronaldo’s watch has been a glaring anomaly.
Since he has been in the league, Hilal have won seven major trophies – the SPL in 2022-23, plus the King’s Cup and the Saudi Super Cup three times each.
The two Jeddah clubs have weighed in, too. Al Ittihad have twice won the league, the King’s Cup once and also the Super Cup.
Al Ahli managed to invoke Ronaldo’s ire by beating them in the final of the Super Cup in Hong Kong in the curtain-raiser to this season.
They have also enjoyed the chance to gloat at Nassr’s expense after winning the continent’s top club competition twice in succession.
Ronaldo’s last league title anywhere was six years ago with Juventus in Italy. Given his celebrity, his commitment to excellence, and his prolific output in front of goal, his haul of league titles across his career is perhaps surprisingly low.
He has won the Premier League three times, La Liga twice and Serie A twice. That is seven titles in a 24-year senior career, meaning he wins the league about 29 per cent of the time.
That is impressive, of course. But Lionel Messi, by contrast, has won 13 league titles in his 22-year senior career, so a strike rate of 59 per cent.
Messi’s haul includes 10 La Liga titles with Barcelona in Spain, six of which were earned while Ronaldo was playing in the league at Real Madrid.
On the league titles metric, Ronaldo is not even the most successful player in his own side at Nassr.
Kingsley Coman’s record of league success is extraordinary. Since his professional debut in 2013 at Paris Saint-Germain, the sides Coman plays for have won the league in every season other than one.
That amounts to nine titles for Bayern Munich – the odd one out being the season Bayer Leverkusen won it – two for PSG and one for Juventus. That is a 93 per cent strike rate.
So, for all the outlay on Ronaldo, it seems the biggest factor in Nassr winning the league for the first time in seven seasons could be their swoop for Coman from Munich last summer.
Which will, of course, be a footnote to the crowning of Ronaldo if Nassr do get the job done against Hilal.
If they don’t, would he stick around just to right the wrong if the trophies do continue to elude him over the coming days?
He has hinted that retirement is not too far away but surely the lure of reaching 1,000 career goals will see him play on.
At the rate he has scored goals in Saudi Arabia, it would take a shade over two more seasons to make it there.
Major League Soccer in the United States could take him first, but if he does stay and play out the rest of his career in Riyadh, the task would not be any easier for Nassr.
The landscape of the league is changing again, with PIF looking to hand over the running of the big clubs, and Qadsiah – funded by Saudi Aramco – emerging as a force.
It feels like it is now or never for the Saudi Arabia chapter of Ronaldo’s story.
