As Jorge Jesus said – with no discernible sense of self-awareness – while Al Nassr were on the up last month, there is a way to win. The counterpoint being, there is a way to act in defeat, too.
When, as is likely, Nassr do break their long trophy hoodoo and wrap up the Saudi Pro League title this week, should everyone be chuffed for them?
Would you expect the captain of the opposition to have the good grace to stick around and respect their lifting of the trophy?
Might their next opposition afford them a guard of honour for a fine achievement?
That would all be jolly nice. And fairly customary, too. All those things have been beyond Nassr in recent times, though.
When Al Ahli Saudi came to Riyadh to face Nassr in a decisive fixture in the SPL at the end of April, it was just days after they had clinched a second successive Asian Champions League title.
It was speculated whether Ronaldo, the captain of the opposition, and Jesus, the coach, should arrange a guard of honour for the champions of Asia.
Of course, it never happened, and the fixture – ultimately won by Nassr thanks largely to a fine goal by Ronaldo – bubbled with an agreeable level of bad blood thereafter.
It was followed by Ronaldo complaining about the “many, many, many bad things” surrounding the game that were “not good for the league”, and Jesus lecturing on the ethics of winning and losing.
Fast forward two weeks, and those sentiments feel a little hollow already.
On Saturday night, days after seeing their SPL coronation delayed by a late howler by goalkeeper Bento, Nassr lost to 1-0 Gamba Osaka in the final of the AFC Champions League Two.
It was the archetypal giant-killing. Gamba started with nine Japanese players, one Tunisian, and a Swedish-born striker who played age-group football for Turkey but, aged 29, is still dual qualified for international football on account of the fact he has yet to be invited to play it.
Nassr, by contrast, have world sport’s best paid player, and a constellation of other stars besides.
As is often the case in defeat, Ronaldo traipsed straight off the field. He was not spotted in the line up when the players went up to receive their runners-up medals, and had reportedly already left the stadium.
At least in his absence his teammates stuck around to see their opposition pick up the trophy. Ronaldo has been derided as a crybaby and a bad sport online in the time since.
He could always counter that with the Vince Lombardi adage about accepting failure: show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser. But it is more grist to the mill of those who say it is all just about him.
Maybe it is the desperation that is getting to him. The realisation that another opportunity for a trophy has slipped through his fingers and the passing of time is against him.
In three-and-a-half years of Ronaldo at Al Nassr, the club’s trophy cabinet has been bare save, for the second-rate Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023.
According to Roberto Martinez, the Portugal coach, Ronaldo’s standard has not dropped since he has been in Saudi Arabia.
“He is playing exceptionally well and has proven his importance to the Portuguese national team,” Martinez was quoted as saying by the German Press Agency.
Martinez could get a good price for a line of those rose-tinted spectacles. Clearly, Ronaldo is not the player he was.
And surely no one would expect him to be; it is no crime for a player to weather once they have passed 40.
At the very least, Ronaldo’s influence on big matches has become diluted. That has been evidenced in the Champions League Elite semi-final against Kawasaki Frontale last season, the Riyadh derby against Hilal last Tuesday, and the final against Gamba.
In the Kawasaki game 13 months ago, he spurned a variety of good chances to help his side through to Asia’s showpiece final, against Ahli.
Against Hilal last week, when Nassr could have killed the title race, he was better than Karim Benzema, but still anonymous by the standards of someone with over 660 million Instagram followers.
Then against Gamba he passed up the chance to score with the goal at his mercy, with a header from a free kick when centrally placed.
When his aerial ability shows signs of waning, that is a worry, although there is enough evidence to suggest that effort against Gamba was an aberration. After all, it is just a few short weeks since his brilliant near post header won that tempestuous meeting with Ahli.
And the trophy hunt is far from over, either. Nassr hold a two-point lead over Hilal ahead of Thursday’s final round of SPL matches.
The title will be theirs if they beat Damac on home soil, no matter what Hilal do in their game against Fahya. Jesus said his players have no time for “grieving” the Gamba defeat.
“We prepared well, took risks as we wanted to win,” the coach said after the loss to Gamba, pointing out he had thrown on Kingsley Coman and Angelo when neither is 100 per cent fit.
“We didn’t get what we wanted here but there is one more final for us, the Saudi Pro League title, which is very important to us.
“We have five days to recover and prepare and there is no time for grieving. We have to get going again.”
If they do finally get their hands on that title, before Jesus and potentially also Ronaldo head for the Middle East sunset, it will be an admirable achievement.
They cannot presume everyone will want to commemorate it as such, though.
