Cristiano Ronaldo made his highly-awaited Saudi Pro League debut with Al-Nassr on Sunday, as he started their game against Al-Ettifaq.
The former Manchester United striker previously gave a glimpse of his talents to the Saudi crowd during the high-profile affair that was PSG vs Riyadh All-Stars.
Facing his long-time rival Lionel Messi for possibly the final time, Ronaldo made sure to turn up, as he scored a brace before taking his leave in the second half.
The game on Sunday marked his first league appearance with Al-Nassr, for which he was even handed the Captain’s armband.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go according to plan for Portugal International.
The 37-year-old failed to grab a goal or assist on his debut, in a league far inferior to the European standards Ronaldo is accustomed to.
It wasn’t for a lack of trying, however, as the forward embarked on offensive runs on numerous occasions, and even dusted off his bag of skills for the game.
Sadly, none of his efforts seemed to come off, and Ronaldo found it difficult to adjust to the league’s physicality.
He was toppled down by opposition players on numerous occasions, and he failed to create any noteworthy scoring opportunities.
The stats don’t do him any good either, CR7 ended the game with a single shot on target, 1 out of 5 ground duels won and just 41 touches in total.
Safe to say, his display on the night was underwhelming.
Nevertheless, the former Real Madrid man was still pleased about making his debut in Al-Nassr colors, and after the game, he took to his Instagram to post a few pictures from the night.
Among the flurry of pictures uploaded by the forward was this one displaying Ronaldo in mid-air, attempting an audacious bicycle kick.
The picture showed off his stunning athleticism at 37 years of age, yet it left out a crucial bit of context.
To an uninformed viewer, the picture will come off as impressive, but viewers who tuned into the game itself will let you know that the actual attempt was almost laughably poor.
As seen towards the end of this compilation, Ronaldo’s bicycle attempt was actually miles off target, so much so that he missed the ball entirely.
