Football Season Guide

In his 4 years at Al Nassr Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t been even close to lifting the Saudi Pro title. Despite again winning the Golden Boot last season (25 league goals) the Portuguese and his team finished only third and full 13 points behind the champions. Lack of defensive stability and quality players in midfield keep hurting Al Nassr when it matters most. They also failed again in the Asian Champions League Elite where in the semifinals got knocked out by eventual winners Al Ahli. This development means that in the coming season, a year in which Ronaldo will turn 41, Al Nassr will only be playing in the Asian Champions League Two competition. With the possibility of this being Cristiano Ronaldo’s last campaign Al Nassr are determined to succeed. They have tried to satisfy the star’s every wish and surrounded him with players and coaching staff he trusts and respects. The huge sum paid for Jhon Durán in January didn’t work out. Him and Ronaldo struggled for chemistry. He’s been loaned out now and Ronaldo’s main partner at Portugal’s national team Joao Felix was signed instead. The two Portuguese should become the most prolific attacking duo in the league. Portuguese coach Jose Jesus is now in charge too. After several good seasons at Al Hilal he can now work with Ronaldo and Co. The two other major new arrivals this winter were electric winger Coman from Bayern Munchen and solid centre-back Martinez from Barcelona. Coman has been injury-prone all his career so this is a risky move. As for Martinez he is now 34-years-old, so not exactly clear how he will improve the back line that looked insecure every time Laporte had to miss time due to an injury. Laporte had 4 different spells out last term. The main weakness every season for years was the lack of good midfielders and this hasn’t been addressed in any way. Brozovic remains the only beacon of hope in that area, the rest of the players around him are good Saudi stars, but when they face the big teams with lots of top class foreign midfielders they often get outplayed. Al Nassr already have 10 foreigners over the age of 21, with only 8 allowed to play in the Saudi Pro league. Both Mane and Otavio are expected to be sold or loaned out as neither works very well with the one player that all revolve around Ronaldo.