Cristiano Ronaldo has finally made his hyped and much-anticipated debut for the Saudi club Al-Nassr against Ettifaq in the Saudi Pro League after joining the Saudi outfit in the first week of January.
The Portuguese legend had made the move to Al-Nassr after terminating his contract from Manchester United to become the best paid player in the history with a contract worth nearly £200 million-a-year.
Ronaldo makes Saudi debut for Al-Nassr
Despite making his debut after a flashy friendly against PSG where he scored a brace, in this winning game in which Al-Nassr beat Ettifaq 1-0, Crisrinao Ronaldo had failed to score.
However, Al-Nassr’s coach, Rudi Garcia, who had earlier gone viral for saying he wanted to bring Lionel Messi, has now said that Cristiano Ronaldo had been instrumental in helping his brand new team in securing their victory over Al-Ettifaq despite not contributing any goals to the game.
Ronaldo fails to score in debut match
Cristiano Ronaldo made his debut in the Saudi Pro League as a captain for Al-Nassr while it was Anderson Talisca who scored the winning goal for their home victory.
Garcia while talking to the reporters said that it was a positive addition and that when someone has a player like Ronaldo, he helps distract all defenders, and that is how they were able to score their lone goal.
Al-Nassr coach Garcia on Ronaldo
Garcia added that today they created opportunity for him [Ronaldo] and that they asked the players to diversify the game between Ronaldo and Talisca. He also said that his participation in the exhibition match against PSG was commendable and he did not get enough rest after that,
However, Garcia took a back-handed take at Ronaldo saying that even with the presence of a player like Cristiano Ronaldo, it was not easy to win the Saudi Pro League because how strong the competitors were.
Al-Nassr now stand at the top of the Saudi league after this much-needed win with 33 points within 14 matches played, being ahead of their arch-rivals Al-Hilal by a point.
