First Man Utd, now Al Nassr: PROOF Ronaldo makes teams worse

Carlo Garganese

• 11 Apr 2023 08:35 BST
• 3 min read

Just like at his previous two clubs, Cristiano Ronaldo has not stopped scoring for Al-Nassr but has contrived to making them a worse team as a whole.

When Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr on a free transfer at the start of the year they were top of the Saudi Pro League.

However, since his arrival, Al-Nassr’s form has got worse as they have drawn three and lost one of their 12 games.

READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo at Al-Nassr: Goals, assists, results & fixtures

This has resulted in Al-Nassr losing top spot in the league to Al-Ittihad, who are now three points clear after 23 matches.

Al-Nassr also lost the Super Cup to Al-Ittihad 3-1 and have now lost twice to their rivals since Ronaldo joined.

Individually, Ronaldo has a fantastic goal record. He has already scored 11 league goals in just 10 games.

But, as was the case with United and Juventus, Ronaldo’s goals have come at a price in terms of overall results of the team worsening.

United failed to qualify for the Champions League in Ronaldo’s only full season back there in 2021-22, despite the Portuguese legend scoring 24 goals in all competitions.

Before that at Juventus, we also saw one of the best teams in Europe who had reached two Champions League finals in three years decline massively in the time Ronaldo was there. They finished fourth in his final season in 2020-21 and they have never recovered since.

Ronaldo’s contract rescinded at Man Utd

Ronaldo’s contract at Man Utd was rescinded in November after an explosive interview with Piers Morgan.

Ronaldo caused huge controversy ahead of the World Cup in November by sitting down for a no-holds barred interview with TalkTV journalist Morgan.

During the interview, Ronaldo slammed a number of key figures at Man Utd, including current manager Erik ten Hag, past manager Ralf Rangnick, owners The Glazers and club legends Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville.

He accused Ten Hag and others of betraying him and trying to force him out of the club and was heavily critical of the way Man Utd was being run.

Ronaldo’s contract was subsequently rescinded by Man Utd before the World Cup began and no other major clubs around Europe were willing to sign him thereafter.

The 38-year-old eventually joined Saudi side Al-Nassr in January, all but bringing to an end his top-level club career.