Cristiano Ronaldo misses out on Saudi Pro League Team of the Season

Cristiano Ronaldo has been beaten by another former Manchester United player to a place in the Saudi Pro League Team of the Season.

A year ago there was some controversy about whether or not Ronaldo deserved to be in the Premier League's Team of the Season.

Sure he'd scored 18 goals in the league for a poor United team but the fact he beat top goalscorer Son Heung-min to the XI certainly caused some indignation.

There was never any danger of him making the list for the Premier League's team this season but surely he'd walk into the team in the Middle East.

Whilst it's not been a perfect five months since he left England for Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo has mainly been able to keep his scoring boots on.

One fine curling effort in particular did keep Al Nassr in the title race with Al Ittihad, although Karim Benzema's new team did eventually win the league by five points.

Despite managing to bag 14 goals in the league and end the campaign as the division's fifth top scorer even though he joined late, he hasn't made the team of the season.

Instead Odion Ighalo is flanked by Firas Al-Buraikan and Mourad Batna in the front three, meaning league top scorer Abderrazak Hamdallah also missed out.

🇳🇬 @ighalojude leads the line 🦅
5⃣ players from the champions @ittihad_en 🟡⚫️

Here's your #RoshnSaudiLeague Team of The Season presented by @OptaAnalyst 🔢 pic.twitter.com/ynZgxDcQC8

— Roshn Saudi League (@SPL_EN) June 7, 2023

The team was picked by OPTA so it's no doubt picked on some statistics we can't work out because the lack of Hamdallah and second top scorer Talisca seems bizarre.

Ighalo was the league's third top scorer with 19 goals in 27 games, which isn't as good as last year when he bagged 24 goals between two teams.

Next year's Team of the Year in the Saudi Pro League is going to look very different with the money suddenly being pumped in.

The PIF has just bought the four biggest clubs in the league and Benzema has signed for the champions already, after leaving Real Madrid.

N'Golo Kante looks likely to be the next player to join the revolution and there could be several more star names added this summer.

Ronaldo may have to really go all out if he wants to be included in the awards season in a year's time!