Cristiano Ronaldo’s Face Said It All After Substitution in Continued Al Nassr Collapse

Ronaldo has hit an unwanted landmark to start 2026.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored for Al Nassr but ended the game in defeat. | Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

Cristiano Ronaldo did little to hide his disappointment when he was substituted with seven minutes remaining of Al Nassr’s 3–1 defeat to Al Hilal on Monday night.

The veteran forward had opened the scoring shortly before the first-half interval. A deft clip over the top of Al Hilal’s backline from João Félix was prodded across an empty box by Kingsley Coman for Ronaldo to spear into the roof of the net. The goal represented Ronaldo’s 15th of a league season which is still only 14 games old.

But the record Saudi champions regrouped after the break and equalized in the 57th minute thanks to a penalty from talisman Salem Al-Dawsari. In the act of trying to prevent Al Hilal grabbing the ball out of his net and taking a quick restart, Al Nassr’s goalkeeper Nawaf Alaqidi brushed his glove against Rúben Neves’s face which, after a VAR review, earned him a needless red card.

Al Hilal made their numerical superiority count in the 81st minute when Mohamed Kanno broke forward from midfield to prod the hosts in front. Two minutes later, Jorge Jesus made the decision few have been brave enough to take.

استبدال كريستيانو رونالدو 🔄🟡#الهلال_النصر | #ديربي_العاصمة_على_ثمانية pic.twitter.com/nzPoMFohzr

— رياضة ثمانية (@thmanyahsports) January 12, 2026

Trailing by a single goal at the time, Jesus took off his record-breaking captain for a fresh set of legs in the form of 20-year-old Brazilian forward Wesley. Ronaldo shook his head while smiling in disbelief, stomping across to the touchline where he thrust his arms outwards.

It was the first time in his Al Nassr career that Ronaldo has ever been taken off in a defeat. His only previous substitution in the league came in second-half stoppage time of a 2–0 victory over Al Ittihad having already scored.

The change didn’t work: Al Nassr promptly conceded a third—but Jesus could be forgiven for trying something new considering the current formula is not working.

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Ronaldo Starts 2026 With Unwanted Record

Cristiano Ronaldo has lost his first three games of 2026. | Fayez NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images

Al Nassr have lost their last three games, condemning Ronaldo to the worst start of any calendar year throughout his entire senior career. Never before has the 40-year-old suffered as many as three straight defeats to begin a new year.

Ronaldo lost Real Madrid’s first two matches of 2015 before breaking the rut with a victory over Espanyol. Nine years earlier, Manchester United were winless in their opening five games of 2006, but Ronaldo still collected three draws along with two defeats.

Al Nassr had sat atop the Saudi Pro League table after racking up 10 straight victories to start the season before this four-game winless glut took hold. Ronaldo’s side have since slipped to second, a yawning seven points adrift of an increasingly relentless iteration of Al Hilal.

After last week’s reverse against Al Qadisah, a match which Ronaldo finished (and scored in), the club captain took to social media to deliver a rallying cry: “This fight isn’t over. We keep working and we will rise together!”

In the wake of his substitution snub, there has been radio silence—which says a lot more.

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