Cristiano Ronaldo's first season in Saudi Arabia ended with a whimper, but with hundreds of millions in wages and unprecedented attention on Saudi football he may not be the last megastar to grace the oil-rich kingdom.
The fireworks and euphoria that greeted Ronaldo's gala unveiling in January were in sharp contrast to the close of Al Nassr's season, when the Portuguese sat out a 3-0 win against Al Fateh late on Wednesday.
Despite signing the five-time Ballon d'Or-winner in a two-and-a-half-year deal said to total 400 million euros ($428 million), Al Nassr finished second in the Saudi Pro League without any silverware, although they qualified for the Asian Champions League as a consolation. "I expected to win something this year, but we didn't," Ronaldo said in an interview broadcast on the Saudi Pro League's social media channels. "But next year I am really positive and confident that things will change, and we go in a better way." Ronaldo scored 14 goals in his 16 games, racking up 1,701 minutes on the pitch.
But it was a "disappointing season" for Al Nassr, the favourite team of some senior Saudi royals, said Al Riyadiah newspaper's editor-in-chief Moqbel Al-Zabni. "They needed at least one championship," he said.