Cristiano Ronaldo's Saudi Move and Portugal Role

Club numbers still matter

The strongest defence of Ronaldo is simple: he has kept scoring.

• One recent report says he reached 100 league goals in 105 appearances for Al Nassr by 7 May.
• The same update says he scored heavily in each full season after arriving in 2022-23.
• That does not end every argument about league strength, but it does weaken the idea that he has faded into irrelevance.

Saudi football is still judged differently from Europe’s top leagues, and that skepticism is understandable. Rhythm, intensity and defensive quality are all fair parts of the discussion. But elite forwards are still judged on movement, finishing, fitness and availability. Ronaldo appears to have preserved those tools well into his 40s.

Portugal have kept trusting him

The more important test is not club football. It is Portugal.

• The report says Ronaldo has scored 25 goals in his last 30 games for the national team.
• It also says he contributed eight goals during Portugal’s 2025 Nations League-winning run.
• Roberto Martinez has backed him publicly and, crucially, has kept selecting him.

That support matters because Martinez’s argument is performance-based. Ronaldo is not in the side because of reputation alone. He is still producing enough to justify the role, even if the role itself has evolved.

The real question now

There is still a counterpoint. Ronaldo went scoreless across five matches at Euro 2024, and that tournament showed the limits of building too much around one veteran star. The issue is no longer whether he can contribute. It is whether Portugal can find the balance between using his goals and protecting the team’s fluency.

That will be the storyline to watch next: not whether Ronaldo belongs, but how far Portugal can go if he remains central when the World Cup arrives.