Ronaldo is still a name above all others when attention turns to the Saudi football league’s season-opening round.
Just like it was earlier this month when more than 30,000 fans turned out in Hong Kong to watch Al-Nassr defeat Al-Ittihad 2-1 in the first semifinal of the Saudi Super Cup on Aug. 19, he’s part of the league’s growth and marketing plans.
“The majority can only be described as Cristiano Ronaldo fans,” Chris KL Lau, a Hong Kong resident and fan, told The Associated Press. “The match had an electric buzz and each time Ronaldo had the ball there was excitement.”
The Portuguese star was mobbed the following day when he visited the city’s official Cristiano Ronaldo museum. “Fans have traveled from across China, Saudi Arabia and the Asia-Pacific to see him,” Lau said.
After Ronaldo left Manchester United and joined the Saudi Pro League in December 2022, other big names followed to Riyadh, Jeddah and elsewhere, including Karim Benzema, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez. The ‘Big Four’ – Al-Nassr, Ittihad as well as Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli – were taken over by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in 2023 and have budgets as big as ambitions.
The league season kicked off Thursday with three games. Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr opens Friday against Al-Taawoun.
While the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is still the international face of the league, backers are working to expand the reach of the league. But the importance of Ronaldo’s presense was evident in the second game at Hong Kong Stadium between Al-Ahli and Al-Qadsiah, when organizers announced a crowd of 16,000. Some doubt that figure.
“Those who were at the game reckon only 5,000 to 6,000 fans were inside,” Lau said “Fans were happy to splash the cash for Ronaldo but were less inclined to do so for Al-Ahli and Al Qadsiah. This resulted in rows of empty seats.”
Expanding influence
Simon Chadwick, a specialist in the relationship between sports, geopolitics and economics, said while people are aware Ronaldo plays in Saudi Arabia, “It’s questionable just how much they know about Al-Nassr or the Pro League.”
“He has been helpful in raising global awareness of Saudi football,” Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian Sport at Emlyon Business School in Paris, said, “but there needs to be greater depth and more sustainable engagement in relations with fans.”
Wael Al-Fayez, the league’s chief commercial officer, says that is already happening.
“Last season, we reached a record 180 countries worldwide, up from 150 the year before,” Al Fayez said. “On the sponsorship side, international deals have surged by 200 percent, which reflects real, measurable growth. On social media, our following grew from 11 million to 15 million last season, with a 60 percent jump in engagement.”
Playing games overseas is another strategy. As Lau, the fan in Hong Kong, noted: “Media coverage here means it was impossible not to be aware of these matches.”
Attracting fans around the world, as major European clubs such as Real Madrid and Liverpool already do, is a long process.
“If Saudi clubs are to compete on the same basis, it will take decades to build a global fan base,” Chadwick said. “So they need to tell a different story to people. The likes of Al-Nassr and Al-Hilal need to give fans something that they can’t get elsewhere.”
Next goal
This could involve becoming Asia’s premier club team.
“Currently, there is no obvious candidate that qualifies as Asia’s No. 1 club or brand,” Chadwick said, “so why shouldn’t this be a Saudi club?”
Domination of Asian continental club competitions will help.
The investment in players has clearly increased standards. Three of the four semifinalists in last season’s Asian Champions League were from Saudi Arabia, with Al-Ahli going on to win the title.
At the Club World Cup in August, Al-Hilal was the only Asian team to make a big impact, drawing with Real Madrid in the group stage and then defeating Manchester City 4-3 in the round of 16.
“The appetite for football globally is growing, and the Saudi Pro League is on its way to become the home of football outside Europe,” Al-Fayez said. “It’s been an incredible start to our journey, and the momentum is undeniable.”
Ronaldo remains the face of the Saudi football league as the season kicks off
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Ronaldo remains the face of the Saudi football league as the season kicks off
- Industry expert: “He has been helpful in raising global awareness of Saudi football”
Rublev marches on, Bublik and Draper fall at Dubai Tennis Championships
- No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev, the 2022 champion, dispatches Ugo Humbert in epic three setter 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3
- Tallon Griekspoor upsets No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets to set-up quarterfinal clash with No. 6 seed Jakub Mensik
DUBAI: Andrey Rublev signaled his determination to reclaim the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title on Wednesday, as the ruthless Russian dispatched fellow former champion Ugo Humbert in a titanic, three-set tussle on center court.
As a two-time finalist in Dubai and the winner there in 2022, Rublev already has fond memories of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Stadium. Meanwhile Humbert, who has also tasted success in Dubai having edged Alexander Bublik to the title in 2024, was looking to tame a second former winner in the space of 24 hours after eliminating reigning champion Stefanos Tsitsipas on Tuesday.
In the early stages of the match a smattering of vocal young fans stirred up an endless cacophony of noise from all four grandstands as the near-capacity crowd repeatedly serenaded both players with cries of “Let’s go, Andrey” and “Allez, Ugo,” the even split among the supporters mirroring the evenly matched contest.
The nail-biter of a match went with serve for the first six games before, as is so often the case in professional tennis, the seventh proved to be a critical turning point. Rublev took advantage of two break points afforded by a pair of uncharacteristic double-faults by Humbert to achieve what Tsitsipas had failed to do in the entirety of their Round of 32 clash: he broke the Frenchman.
The set then resettled into a familiar pattern as the pair once again held serve amid minimal threats. And so, after 41 minutes of the back-and-forth, Rublev claimed the opening set 6-4 courtesy of that sole break of serve.
The second set mirrored the first, this time with both players avoiding a break of serve, until Humbert, the current world No. 37, narrowly edged the tiebreak 7-5 to even the match.
With very little separating the battling duo at this point, their seesaw duel was akin to two prize fighters exchanging punches with neither able to land a decisive blow. Buoyed no doubt by the feverish support from their respective fans, both players refused to buckle.
But then, with the third set tied at 1-1, Rublev held serve, broke and held again to win three straight games and move 4-1 ahead. The match then, predictably, once again went with serve until it was 5-3.
Then Humbert, facing the prospect of elimination, suddenly found himself with two break points as his opponent wobbled while serving for the match. The steely Russian held his nerve, however, and dispatched a trio of massive serves, including two aces, to reverse the deficit and set up his first match-point.
That was all the 28-year-old needed, as another huge serve forced a Humbert error and sealed the match 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3.
“It was a very dramatic ending,” Rublev said. “I’m really happy I was able to keep going and save the last game.
“It’s difficult to close a match; you can make a double-fault or a mistake, but I made three good serves and that helped me a lot. It’s much easier to win points from the serve than playing rallies every time.”
He commended his opponent, saying: “Ugo played really well. I took my two break chances but he served unbelievably all match. He shoots super hard and very fast, so it’s not easy to do something. I had to be ready for the one chance to break him in a set, and I got those chances and was able to do it.
“This match gives me a lot of confidence, so we’ll see what will happen in the quarterfinal. I’m playing well, so let’s see.”
Rublev now faces another Frenchmen, Arthur Rinderknech, who emerged victorious from a grueling three-set marathon against the British No. 4 seed, Jack Draper, 7-5, 6-7, 6-4.
Their match, which finished well after midnight and with an eerie mist hovering over center court, yielded only two breaks of serve, both of which went Rinderknech’s way. Despite the defeat, Draper can head home with his head held high as his return to top-level tennis continues after a six-month injury layoff.
On the new court 1, Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands pulled off the biggest upset of the day by taming No. 2 seed Alexander Bublik in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. The win earned the world No. 25 a quarterfinal encounter with No. 6 seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, who made short work of the Australian, Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2.
