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Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo leads Al-Nassr to Saudi Pro League title in last game before World Cup 2026.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Al-Nassr clinched the Saudi Pro League title with a 4-1 win over Damac, ending his long wait for domestic silverware.

A trademark free-kick and a close-range finish, both in the final half-hour of Thursday’s game, sealed the win Al-Nassr needed on the last night of the season, with Al Hilal finishing just two points behind.

Ronaldo, 41, who was without a major club trophy since winning Serie A with Juventus in 2020, arrived in the oil-rich desert kingdom to great acclaim in 2023, wept as he watched the final minutes from the bench.

He adds the Saudi championship to his English, Spanish and Italian titles and five Champions League medals.

Al-Nassr took a 2-0 lead but were back to 2-1 before Ronaldo’s free-kick on 63 minutes evaded the goalkeeper and a forest of legs to find the far corner.

He struck again nine minutes from time, receiving a cut-back on the edge of the six-yard box and smashing high into the net.

Next up for the all-time leading men’s international goalscorer, with 143 goals, is a sixth crack at the World Cup after he was named in Portugal’s squad this week.

Ronaldo opened the door to a series of big-money Saudi signings when he joined Al-Nassr in January 2023, following an unhappy second spell at Manchester United.

Neymar and Karim Benzema were among those to follow after Ronaldo signed a two-and-a-half-year deal estimated at $232m, extended for two years in June 2025.

The stated aim was to turn the Pro League into one of the world’s top five football competitions measured by the quality of players, stadium attendances and commercial success. International interest has been muted, however.

In December 2024, Saudi Arabia was confirmed as host of the 2034 World Cup, a coup as it pushes to decouple its economy from oil and attract business and tourists, partly via the buzz of sport.

With a record 664 million Instagram followers, Ronaldo has been a highly visible ambassador as Saudi Arabia tries to turn the page on the ultra-conservative image that has defined it for decades.

The world’s biggest oil exporter and home of Islam has been accused of “sportswashing” – using sport to deflect human rights criticism – as it has invested in Formula 1, golf, boxing and tennis alongside football.

Some of the more outlandish spending on economic diversification, including sprawling tourist developments and NEOM, a futuristic city in the desert, is being reined in.

This month, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund said it was exiting the breakaway LIV Golf tour, after reportedly ploughing more than $5bn into a venture that split the sport.

Expensive football signings have also waned with the stream of big-money transfers slowing to a trickle.

Ronaldo was the Pro League’s top scorer in his first two seasons, with his career tally now at 973 – tantalisingly close to the 1,000-goals milestone.

His Saudi stint has not always been smooth. In 2024, he was left in floods of tears when Al-Nassr lost the King’s Cup final to Al Hilal on penalties, denying him his first Saudi title.

This season, he disappeared from Al-Nassr’s lineup for three games in an apparent protest at Benzema’s transfer to rival team Al Hilal.

Al Hilal and Al-Nassr were among the stable of Saudi teams owned by the Public Investment Fund, the country’s $900bn sovereign wealth fund.

Before Thursday, Ronaldo’s only silverware with Al-Nassr was the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup. He was also disappointed on Saturday, when Al-Nassr lost to Gamba Osaka in the AFC Champions League Two final.

Liverpool’s woes deepen as Ollie Watkins scores a brace to help his side to a dominant win at Villa Park.

Ollie Watkins scored twice as Aston Villa eased to a 4-2 Premier League victory over Liverpool to seal Champions League qualification for next ⁠season and leave their visitors looking over their shoulder at the chasing pack.

The win on Friday moves Villa into fourth place with 62 points from their 37 games, leapfrogging their opponents, who have 59 points from ⁠the same number of matches.

Liverpool remain vulnerable to being caught by both Bournemouth and Brighton in the race for a Champions League place as they slipped to a 12th defeat of the season with a single point from the last nine available.

Morgan Rogers gave Villa a first half lead before Virgil van ‌Dijk equalised for Liverpool early in the second period and then got another in added time.

But Watkins’ double and a brilliant late fourth from John McGinn sealed the win for Unai Emery’s side, who head into Wednesday’s Europa League final against Freiburg in buoyant mood.

“We had to get over the line,” McGinn told Sky Sports. It allows us to be excited and enjoy Wednesday properly.

“[Watkins] was obviously disappointed in March [being left out of the England squad] but if it gave him a kick ⁠up the backside, he’s certainly responded in the best way.

“We’re so fortunate to ⁠have him, what he’s done for this club the past few seasons has been incredible. Hopefully he can carry that into next week.”

Villa head to Istanbul to meet Freiburg with one of their major goals this season already achieved, and the chance ⁠to lift silverware to cap their campaign.

The hosts took the lead on 42 minutes against the run of play. Lucas Digne found Rogers in space ⁠on the left-hand side of the box and the forward curled ⁠it into the far corner.

Liverpool levelled on 52 minutes when Van Dijk headed home at the back post from Dominik Szoboszlai’s free-kick, before 17-year-old winger Rio Ngumoha struck the base of the post from the edge of the box.

But a slip from Szoboszlai ‌presented Watkins with a second goal for the home side, and Emiliano Buendia struck the Liverpool post with a curling shot as Villa looked the more likely to score again.

And so it proved as ‌Watkins ‌netted his second via a rebound from close range.

McGinn curled in a beautiful shot to make it 4-1 on 89 minutes, before Van Dijk’s second headed goal brought some respectability to the scoreline.

Liverpool manager ‌Arne Slot said he feels no added pressure after the defeat but admitted ⁠his side are conceding too many soft goals.

“It’s not about me, it’s about us being disappointed with the result,” Slot told the BBC. “I spoke yesterday on it [my future] and that’s enough.

“Our focus is on the Brentford game [next weekend] and making sure we earn the support of the fans by starting the game aggressive and ⁠well.”

Villa scored four times on Friday but might have had several ⁠more goals as they cut apart Liverpool’s defence.

“We have conceded a ⁠lot of goals this season, which you’d find hard to believe unless you live it and that’s what we did today,” he said.

“Villa were the better team and the game ‌went away from us.”

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Calvin Harris had a goal and two assists and Dejan Joveljić scored against his former team, leading Sporting Kansas City to a 3-1 victory over the visiting Galaxy on Wednesday night.

Sporting KC (2-8-2) snapped an eight-match winless streak under first-year manager Raphaël Wicky and an eight-match winless skid at home dating to last year. The club’s only other victory came against the Galaxy (4-5-4) — a 2-1 road win on March 14 in which Joveljić also scored.

Sporting KC grabbed a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute on Capita Capemba’s first career goal in his sixth appearance. Harris and Lasse Berg Johnsen had assists.

Joveljić made it 2-0 at halftime when he scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time with assists from Harris and defender Zorhan Bassong. It was his sixth goal this season and his 24th in 44 appearances with his new club. Joveljić scored 34 goals for the Galaxy from 2021-24. He scored the winner in the final against the New York Red Bulls in 2024 for L.A.’s sixth MLS Cup before being traded in the offseason.

Harris found the net in the 70th minute for a 3-0 lead with helpers from Manu García and Jacob Bartlett, who entered in the 61st. It was Harris’ first goal this season and his 12th in 113 career matches.

Stefan Cleveland totaled six saves for Sporting KC in his third start this season and the 15th of his career.

J.T. Marcinkowski saved six shots for Los Angeles.

The Galaxy extended their current scoring streak to a league-best 22 straight matches when Gabriel Pec scored in the 89th minute for his 10th goal of the season. Justin Haak and former Sporting KC member Erik Thommy had assists.

Pec scored two late goals in a 2-1 road win over Atlanta United last time out. It was his 10th goal of the campaign.

Sporting KC ties the all-time series at 29-29-18 while improving to 20-10-9 at home against the Galaxy.

Joveljić has scored in three straight matches against his former teammates.

Up next

Galaxy: Visit the Seattle Sounders on Saturday.

Kansas City: Visits Austin FC on Saturday.

Mathias Laborda scored in the 82nd minute for the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night, sealing a 1-1 tie with the Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

The Whitecaps (8-1-1), who were only the second MLS team in the post-shootout era (since 2000) to win eight of their first nine games to begin a season, had their club regular-season record four-game win streak snapped.

Sebastian Berhalter played a free kick from the left side to the back post and Laborda headed home the finish from point-blank range to cap the scoring.

The Whitecaps had 58% possession and outshot the Galaxy 19-7, including a 5-2 edge in on target shots.

Joseph Paintsil opened the scoring in the 46th minute. Lucas Sanabria, in the opening seconds of the second half, stole a misplayed ball from Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka and fed Paintsil for a finish from the right side of the area.

JT Marcinkowski had four saves for the Galaxy (3-4-4).

Takaoka finished with one save.