Cristiano Ronaldo rediscovered his scoring boots as he netted four times to help guide new club Al Nassr to a comfortable victory over Al Wehda in Saudi Arabia.
The world’s best paid footballer lived up to his billing and the attention he has garnered since moving to Saudi Arabia with a commanding performance worth every bit of the reported $214m a year salary. Well, some of it anyway.
Having struggled in front of goal, at least by his own high standards, Ronaldo had been limited to an injury time penalty in his previous outing as his only goal for Al Nassr, but his account is looking much healthier after his new side outperformed the team languishing in 13th place in the 16-team league.
Ronaldo scores four
The dream night for Ronaldo, his teammates and fans around the world kicked off in the 21st minute with a left-footed shot into the Al Wehda goal.
A quick “siu” celebration before a VAR check confirmed the goal and the former Man Utd star was unstoppable for the rest of the night.
The video assisted referees were brought out for the second goal as well, but after two minutes of checking CR7 was able to celebrate a 40th minute strike.
A hat-trick of VAR checks led to a first hat-trick in Saudi Arabia for Ronaldo when he slotted home a 53d-minute penalty.
Demonstrating a thirst for goals not quelled by age or a move to a different league, Ronaldo added a fourth just after the hour mark.
Football is a team game and it is all to easy to concentrate only on the performance of the Portugal star, but in a match like this he deserves the attention he gets.
The four goals in a single match takes his league career tally to 503. It puts him behind only Pele (604), Romario (544), Josef Bican (518) and Ferenc Puskas (514) on the all-time list of league goalscorers.
Al Nassr now sit top of the league and next play when they face Al Taawoun on Friday, February 17.
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