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Cristiano Ronaldo’s first trophy with Al Nassr will taste bittersweet: A touch of silverware and a terrible knee injury. Al Alami lifted the Arab Club Champions Cup, defeating Al Hilal, with Ronaldo scoring two goals before being carted away. It seems the 5x Ballon d’Or winner, who also bagged the Golden Boot, was left disheartened after he failed to win the Best Player Award, an accolade synonymous with his name.

Despite losing to Al Nassr and CR7 in the final, Al Hilal’s Sergej Milinković-Savić won the prestigious award at the tournament. 

Cristiano Ronaldo received a prestigious award with Al Nassr

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The Portuguese icon scored six goals and won the Golden Boot. Ronaldo scored three more than former Los Blancos teammate, Karim Benzema. But missing out on the Best Player Award seems to have irked him. When the organizers handed $54,00,000 rated Milinkovic-Savic the trophy, Ronaldo was visibly upset with the outcome.

via Getty

He could be seen making displeased gestures after being snubbed out of contention. Consequently, the award for the highest scorer provides relief for the Portuguese legend, who posted an Instagram story showing off his latest achievement. 

Goal scoring has always been a big part of Ronaldo’s game, and he has scored quite a few beauties in his career. Be it headers, tap-ins, long-range crackers, penalties, or free kicks, CR7 knows to hit the back of the net perfectly well. Therefore, this is not the first major award he won. Apart from club trophies, there appears a lengthy list of individual accolades he conjured in his illustrious career. 

He won the European Golden Shoe four times and scored a remarkable 48 goals in the 2014/15 season. Likewise, he won the Golden Boot at the UEFA Euros in 2021 and the UEFA Nations League Finals Golden Boot for his nation.

READ MORE- How Cristiano Ronaldo Manages to Stay Fit at Such an Age

In the Champions League, he dominated the competition like no one else picking up the top scorer award seven times. This is just another award to remember, in a long laundry list of awards. Meanwhile, Ronaldo left the field with a knee injury during the wee minutes of the game.

Ronaldo, who was in tears, had to be carted off the field

After scoring two important goals, Ronaldo was forced to leave the field in the cart. In the 115th minute, he was substituted and couldn’t exit the pitch independently. The Portuguese star had suffered an injury on the same knee during the Euro 2016 final. 

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The incident even left Al Nassr boss, Luis Castro, fuming, and he called out the federations for keeping tight match schedules! “This is unfair. Humanly, our match should be postponed with the agreement. Players are not machines. I don’t know what to do and how to play without risking the players,” he said.

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The cup will act as an aid for an ailing CR7, who left the pitch in tears. Apart from Ronaldo, players like Alex Telles, Marcelo Brozovic, Sadio Mane, and Talisca raised their game and helped the Jeddah-based club finally clinch silverware.

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