Ten days after walking out of Portugal’s national team camp, Cristiano Ronaldo gave his answer the way he usually does, with a goal. The 41-year-old opened the scoring for Al Nassr against Al Diriyah in the Saudi Pro League on Friday. The captain’s right-footed strike in the 23rd minute made it 1-0 at Al-Awwal Park and took him to 980 career goals in the 2026-27 Saudi Pro League Matchday 8.
That leaves him 20 short of a number no professional footballer has reached: 1,000.
The Matchday 8 game was goalless until the 23rd minute. Kingsley Coman let fly with a powerful shot that the Al Diriyah goalkeeper could only parry. Cristiano Ronaldo was the first to react and finished the rebound to give Al Nassr the lead.
It was not one of his spectacular strikes, but it showed what has kept him scoring for more than two decades. He was in the right place, he read the save before anyone else, and he finished cleanly. It was his fourth goal of the season, all of them in the league.
(More to follow)
