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Cristiano Ronaldo in the match against Al Fateh
Photo:
ALI ALDAIF / AFP
Third competitive game, first goal: The knot has burst with the former world footballer Cristiano Ronaldo for the Saudi Arabian top club Al Nassr FC.
A few seconds before the final whistle, the 37-year-old Portuguese scored against Al Fateh on Friday with a penalty kick (90+3) to make it 2-2 (1-1) and secured a point for the title contenders.
Al Nassr successfully defended his lead in the standings.
Earlier, Ronaldo had squandered his first title chance with Al Nassr by going out in the semi-finals of the Saudi Super Cup when his team lost 3-1 to Al Ittihad FC.
At Ronaldo's debut there was a 1-0 draw against Al Ettifaq for the league leaders.
So far, Ronaldo had only scored a PR kick against Paris Saint-Germain for Lionel Messi.
At that time, however, his two goals were not enough to win, a selection from Ronaldo's new Saudi Arabian employer Al Nassr and rival Al Hilal lost 4: 5 (2: 2) against the French star collective.
Around 70,000 fans came to the stadium at the time.
After his noisy departure from Manchester United, Ronaldo was hired in Saudi Arabia until 2025 and is said to have earned around 500 million euros in salary during this period.
Money is not an issue in the kingdom anyway.
On the one hand, Ronaldo should help to strengthen the domestic league in the Asian market.
And above all improve Saudi Arabia's reputation as a sporting nation.
The Gulf state has its sights set on hosting a soccer World Cup and the Summer Olympics.
kjo/sid/dpa