The latest episode of Keeping up with Cristiano Ronaldo looks to be back on air this weekend after the ageing superstar decided to end his self-inflicted strike against the Saudi Pro League.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the recent adventures of Ronaldo (honestly, good for you), he has been on strike after levelling accusations that the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund was giving preferential treatment to Al-Hilal rather than Ronaldo’s own club Al-Nassr. Like when your mum insisted it was your sister’s turn on the PlayStation.

Ronaldo has thankfully been away from the mainstream world of football since 2023 after throwing what toys he had left out of his pram at Manchester United. After he decided to set fire to his own legacy, Ronaldo’s landing pad was being one of the first big names to move to the Saudi Pro League and he signed a deal with the devil worth ￡488,000 a day.

That appeared to be that in the career of Cristiano Ronaldo but things haven’t exactly been going to plan since he became the sportswashing project’s biggest star.

In the three years Ronaldo has been at Al-Nassr, he has won a grand total of zero major trophies. In the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo has had to watch on as other clubs are so rude as to spoil his retirement party.

Ronaldo, as Ronaldo usually does, has attempted to fill the void of any team success with individual achievements and is 39 goals away from reaching 1,000 in his career. Even Ronaldo’s biggest detractors have to admit that it is an impressive feat and even if his latter years are spent in the retirement Saudi Pro League, a career involving stints at United, Real Madrid and Juventus is demanding of respect.

But that’s the thing with Ronaldo. Whenever he does something that seems even remotely admirable, he follows it up with an incredible act of selfishness, of petulance. Something that makes you wonder if the birth year on his passport is incorrect, for surely these are not the actions of a man who turned 41 five days ago.

Ronaldo’s latest outburst, which would have the rest of us waking up at 3AM with self-embarrassment, comes after Al-Hilal signed Ronaldo’s former Madrid team-mate Karim Benzema from Al-Ittihad.

The backstory as to why this was so hurtful for Ronaldo is that Al-Hilal, along with Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, Al-Ittihad, and Al-Hilal, are owned by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF).

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Ronaldo believes that PIF are playing favourites – opting to strengthen his rivals and pointing to a lack of signings for his own club in the January transfer window. If only they had an over-the-hill expensive player they could get rid of…

Such was Ronaldo’s annoyance, he opted to go on strike, allowing his frustrations to boil over and start pointing at decisions with his own club such as directors Jose Semedo and Simao Coutinho – allies of Ronaldo – having their roles reduced and also a lack of spending in the winter transfer window.

Ronaldo’s argument falls down when you consider that the club has spent?€414.47million since he arrived and the expensive signing he is apparently after is the man he sees in the presumably dozens of mirrors he has in his own house.

Ronaldo’s annoyance manifested itself as him missing two games for the club that pays him a small fortune and there are reports he has issued an ‘ultimatum’ about leaving in the summer. Al-Nassr probably would not care too much if he did leave but PIF is bending over backwards to appease him for much more PR-focused reasons.

Ronaldo has shone an international spotlight on the league at a time when it is trying to establish its credibility. In their PR firefight, the league put out a statement emphasising clubs’ independence but the damage is already done for both organisation and Ronaldo.

There are reports that PIF and Al-Nassr have caved into Ronaldo’s demands with Semedo and Coutinho back in charge and that he will end his exile this weekend. PIF even sweetened the deal with some additional payments, as if his ￡181.5m tax-free annual salary wasn’t enough.

But there are no winners in this situation. The Saudi Pro League rightly looks like a joke and a warning to the Premier League of the dangers of multi-club ownership while Ronaldo yet again comes across as a 41-year-old man-child who never developed a sense of self-awareness or humility. Not to mention that Al-Nassr are only one point off the top and could probably do with the help of a five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Ronaldo will hit 1,000 goals eventually, he may even win the league title, but moments like this are why he who shall not be named will always be remembered more fondly by football fans.

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