RIYADH — Cristiano Ronaldo, the international legend of Al-Nassr Club, failed to bring home any championships and trophies during the current season. This was the fourth time the Portuguese star finished a season without winning any titles since the beginning of his brilliant professional football career. Al-Nassr failed to clinch the Saudi Professional League title from Al-Ittihad Jeddah, who emerged as the Roshn Saudi League champions after defeating Al-Feiha 3-0 in the 29th round of the competitions on Saturday evening. Ronaldo arrived in Riyadh in January after being released from his contract by English Premier League powerhouse Manchester United and had to settle for second place in the 16-team Saudi Arabian league. Al-Nassr's 1-1 draw with Ettifaq meant that Al-Ittihad's 3-0 win at Al-Feiha gave the Jeddah team a five-point lead with one game remaining and its first league title since 2009. The result also ended Ronaldo's first season in Saudi Arabia without a trophy. Ronaldo began his career with Sporting Lisbon in the 2002-2003 season during which Sporting Lisbon won the Super Championship. In the following season, he moved to Manchester United where he won the English FA Cup. Ronaldo did not get any silverware for the first time in the 2004-2005 season, after losing the Community Shield title to Arsenal 3-1, and Milan defeated the Manchester team in the European Champions League final 2-0 on aggregate of two matches (home and away). Manchester United finished the English Premier League in third place behind Arsenal and Chelsea. Man. United also finished runner-up in the FA Cup after being defeated by Arsenal in the final. Ronaldo was crowned with eight tournament titles after this season until he moved to Real Madrid in the 2009-2010 season. This season — his first with the with the Spanish giant, the Portuguese soccer star finished empty-handed for the second time in his career. Ronaldo was part of the eight deals concluded in 2009 by Florentino Perez, president of the Spanish club Real Madrid, in order to match Barcelona's supremacy in the Spanish league. Ronaldo scored 26 goals in 29 matches in the Spanish League in his first season, but the Madrid team finished the championship race three points behind Barcelona. The Portuguese star and Real Madrid faced two embarrassing eliminations — one from the from the Champions League against Lyon in the round of 16, and the second from the Corconas in the King's Cup in the round of 32 — the same year. Ronaldo spent the most successful period of his career with Real Madrid after this season, winning 16 different championships, including four Champions League titles, before moving to Juventus. Ronaldo had spent three seasons with Bianconeri during which he crowned it with five championships, before announcing an emotional return to Manchester United for the 2021-2022 season. The team won the League and Confederation Cups defeating West Ham and Middlesbrough respectively, and finished sixth in the league. In the current season, Ronaldo terminated his contract with the English team in November 2022, after which he joined Al-Nassr during the last winter transfers, and ended up on the losing side in the league race, with the title being claimed by Al-Ittihad. In addition, Al-Nassr was eliminated from the semifinals of the Super Cup and the King's Cup after losing to Al-Ittihad and Al-Wehda respectively.
