From Manchester United to Al-Nassr: Has Cristiano Ronaldo proved Erik ten Hag right four years later?
The Portuguese superstar has now been missing from the "global game" for more than a month.
Almost exactly four years ago, the most serious crisis of Cristiano Ronaldo's career began. It eventually ended with the Portugal icon saying goodbye to European football and moving to Al-Nassr in the Saudi league.
Now, four years later, the same warning signs have surfaced again. This time, the concerns are centred on Al-Nassr themselves.
A month after the World Cup: where is Ronaldo?
On 6 July, Portugal were knocked out of the 2026 World Cup, staged in the United States, Canada and Mexico, after a 1-0 defeat to Spain in the round of 16.
It was widely expected that Cristiano Ronaldo would report back for Al-Nassr training once the standard 21-day leave period ended on the 27th of last month. That did not happen. He also failed to join the overseas training camp in Portugal.
Instead, Ronaldo remained away in Riyadh. He has now missed every training session held across the three cities used for the camp - the Saudi capital, Abha and Lisbon - for a total of 32 days.
All of this has happened with just one week left before the start of the new season on 15 August, when Al-Nassr are due to face Al-Fateh in the opening round of the Saudi Roshn League.
Ronaldo's continued absence has caused frustration among Al-Nassr supporters, while the club's hierarchy have remained silent. The coaching staff, led by Australian manager Ange Postecoglou, have also said nothing. There is still no confirmed date for his return.
The Manchester United scenario repeats itself four years on: was Erik ten Hag right?
A very similar episode unfolded four years ago. In 2022, Ronaldo missed the pre-season camp of his former club Manchester United before the beginning of the new campaign, staying away for more than a month despite having no international duty with Portugal.
Manchester United started that camp on 27 June, with the international players scheduled to join on 4 July. The Portuguese forward was not among them.
He did not come back after two days, or even after two weeks. Ronaldo eventually returned a full month after the camp had started, offering an apology and explaining that his daughter had been suffering from bronchial inflammation, which had required a week in hospital.
The unusual part came next. When Ronaldo returned on 26 July, it was not to resume training, but to hold talks over leaving the club, as he wanted a move to a team playing in the UEFA Champions League - a competition Manchester United were not involved in.
It was only on 30 July 2022 that the Portugal star finally took part in a Manchester United training session, after missing the preparatory tour in Thailand and Australia. That affected his involvement across the rest of the season.
Erik ten Hag, who was Manchester United manager at the time, reacted by not restoring Ronaldo immediately to his regular place in the starting XI, arguing that the striker did not have the necessary fitness levels after missing the camp.
That call led to a series of tensions between the two men. Ronaldo later launched a public attack on ten Hag, saying he had no respect for him, during his explosive interview with broadcaster Piers Morgan in November that same year.
In that interview, Ronaldo criticised everyone, and Manchester United answered by terminating his contract. He then joined Al-Nassr on a free transfer in the winter of 2023, and he has remained at the club ever since.
Euro 2024: a similar crisis
During that time, Al-Nassr went through four pre-season camps, the latest being the current one, from which Ronaldo has now been absent for more than a month.
This is not the first such delay in his Al-Nassr spell. The same thing happened in 2024, after Ronaldo completed his campaign with the Portugal national team at the European Championship, Euro 2024.
At that time, Al-Nassr gave their international players who had featured at the European Championship and the Copa America a three-week holiday from the date of their final match in those tournaments.
Portugal were eliminated in the quarter-finals by France on 5 July 2024, but Ronaldo did not link up with Al-Nassr's camp until 2 August that year, once again after almost a month.
On that occasion, however, things passed without issue, particularly because he returned 12 days before the team's opening fixtures of the season, the first of which was against Al-Taawoun in the Super Cup semi-final on the 14th of that month.
Ronaldo used that period to get himself ready, and he even scored one of the two goals in the victory over Al-Taawoun while also setting up the other. That scenario looks impossible this time, with only one week left before the season begins.
Some reports suggest that the "Madeira Rocket" could miss Al-Nassr's first two matches of the new season - against Al-Fateh in the opening rounds of the Roshn League and against Al-Diriyah in the round of 32 of the King's Cup of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.
If that happens, it would amount to a major problem for Al-Nassr, especially because the club have been unable to strengthen the squad during the current summer transfer window due to the financial crisis they are facing.
