Cristiano Ronaldo left the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium in a hurry, not bothering to pick up his silver medal, after his Al-Nassr team lost the Saudi Super Cup final on Saturday, 4-1.

In January 2023, the 39-year-old moved to Saudi Arabia, and following his victory in the Arab Club Champions Cup the previous season, he was expecting to capture his second trophy.

In Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Al-Taawoun in the Super Cup semi-final, Ronaldo scored his first goal of the season. He then scored again shortly before halftime to put Al-Nassr ahead 1-0 in the final on Saturday.

Al-Hilal, however, who went undefeated in the Saudi Pro League the previous year, responded with four goals in the second half, two of which were scored by former Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic.

The goals were going in, and Captain Ronaldo was clearly not impressed.

Cristiano Ronaldo (centre) captained Al-Nassr in Saturday’s Saudi Super Cup loss to Al-Hilal

The 39-year-old scored the game’s opening goal but his side lost 4-1 against their Riyadh rivals

Ronaldo left the Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Stadium without collecting his silver medal

Ronaldo gestured furiously at his team-mates after Al-Hilal scored four second-half goals.

Al-Hilal’s fourth goal, in Ronaldo’s defence, came about as a result of some fairly terrible play by his teammates.

Goalkeeper Bento lost the ball to Malcom on the edge of the six-yard box following a miserable attempt to play out from the back. Ronaldo then stood in the centre circle, put his hands together, and motioned to his teammates that they had been “sleeping.”

Al-Nassr’s players received medals for finishing second in the four-team competition after the game.

Ronaldo, a former player for Real Madrid and Manchester United, however, showed no desire to pick up his and left the stadium empty-handed.

Thus far, Ronaldo’s tenure in Al-Nassr has been uneventful.

His track record of scoring goals is excellent. He won the Saudi Pro League Golden Boot the previous season and has now scored 66 goals in 72 games for the Riyadh team.

But after leading the table before Ronaldo arrived, Al-Nassr finished five points behind winners Al-Ittihad in his debut season, and they finished 14 points behind Al-Hilal in the 2023–24 campaign.

Ronaldo mocked his Al-Nassr’s team-mates by gesturing that they were ‘sleeping’ on the field.

Ronaldo has also expressed frustration with the treatment he has had in Saudi Arabia from supporters of opposing teams.

Last season, opposition fans taunted Ronaldo by screaming the name of his fierce rival Lionel Messi during nearly all of Al-Nassr’s away games.

This also applied to Saturday’s final, which took place at an impartial location.

Al-Nassr will host Al-Raed on Thursday to kick off their most recent Saudi Pro League campaign.

This season, Ronaldo and company are also scheduled to participate in the King Cup and Champions League Elite.

Since Ronaldo went to Saudi Arabia 19 months ago, the country has seen a considerable surge in competition.

Numerous well-known athletes, like Neymar, Sadio Mane, Riyad Mahrez, Marcelo Brozovic, and Aymeric Laporte, have followed the Portuguese legend by choosing the Arab Gulf state over Europe.

The majority of the big-money transactions have been supported by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which also owns Newcastle United in the Premier League of England in addition to Al-Nassr, Al-Hilal, Al-Ahli, and Al-Ittihad.

Since moving to Saudi Arabia in January 2023, Ronaldo has hit 66 goals in 72 Al-Nassr games

But he has only won one team trophy after being involved in two failed Pro League title bids

It was recently reported that the PIF tried to strike a deal to tempt Vinicius Junior to leave Real Madrid for Al-Ahli by proposing a five-year contract worth €1 billion.

However, Vinicius is said to have rebuffed the offer, which would have seen him effectively match Ronaldo’s annual Al-Nassr salary of around €200m.