(VIDEO) Al-Ittihad Fans Taunt Cristiano Ronaldo With Messi Chants As Al-Nassr Suffers First Loss

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — Cristiano Ronaldo endured a forgettable performance and a chorus of taunts from home supporters Saturday as Al-Nassr suffered its first defeat of the season, falling 2-1 to rival club Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League.

Al-Nassr had won all four of its league matches under new manager Ange Postecoglou before Saturday’s loss to one of its main title rivals. Nigerian striker George Ilenikhena scored twice for Al-Ittihad, while former Chelsea winger Angelo Gabriel provided Al-Nassr’s lone goal. Ronaldo, playing in front of the Al-Ittihad crowd, failed to register a goal or an assist and was taunted by home supporters as the match neared its conclusion.

Al-Ittihad fans repeatedly chanted the name of Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s longtime rival, during the closing stages of the victory, a jab widely understood to be directed squarely at Ronaldo despite the two players themselves having maintained a relatively cordial relationship off the field over the years.

The chants continued a long-running tradition among Al-Ittihad supporters specifically, and Saudi Pro League crowds more broadly, of invoking Messi’s name whenever Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr faces defeat in the kingdom. Given that Messi has generally been favored in the broader public debate over which of the two players stands as the greatest of all time, fans have frequently reached for his name as a pointed insult toward Ronaldo during difficult moments in his Saudi Arabian career.

Ronaldo did not publicly react to Saturday’s chants, though observers noted he surely would have heard them given their volume and persistence throughout the closing stages of the match. At one point during the game, Ronaldo attempted to read a note passed along by Al-Ittihad’s coaching staff to his former Portugal national team teammate, Danilo Pereira, who now plays for Al-Ittihad, with the two sharing a laugh over the odd moment despite being on opposing sides.

Al-Ittihad’s official English-language social media account took its own direct shot at Ronaldo following the match, posting a message mocking the Portuguese superstar.

“Cheating and still losing!” the club’s account wrote in a post accompanying video from the match, tagging the hashtag associated with the fixture between the two clubs.

Saturday’s defeat marked far from the first time Ronaldo has faced Messi-themed taunts from Al-Ittihad supporters since his move to Saudi Arabia. In a previous meeting between the two clubs in the Saudi Super Cup, Al-Ittihad fans chanted Messi’s name as Ronaldo left the pitch following a 3-1 semifinal defeat for Al-Nassr, in a match during which Ronaldo struggled to make an impact despite playing the full 90 minutes. Al-Ittihad supporters have gone as far as publicly calling on their own club to pursue signing Messi ahead of previous high-profile matchups against Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, further fueling the rivalry’s Messi-versus-Ronaldo undertone even within a domestic Saudi league context.

The taunts have not been limited to matches against Al-Ittihad specifically. In a separate previous match against Saudi rival Al-Hilal, Ronaldo was similarly taunted by opposing fans waving Messi jerseys as he left the field following a defeat in which he was denied a penalty by video assistant referee review and had a separate goal disallowed for offside.

Ronaldo’s history with Al-Ittihad specifically has included other notably tense moments. In an earlier Saudi Pro League meeting between the two clubs, Ronaldo stormed off the pitch down the tunnel, kicking water bottles out of his path, after a 1-0 defeat marked his second consecutive match without scoring at the time. During that same match, Ronaldo removed his captain’s armband before leaving the field and appeared poised to throw it in frustration before regaining his composure, as Al-Ittihad fans chanted Messi’s name throughout that contest as well.

Saturday’s result leaves Al-Ittihad positioned as one of the leading challengers in this season’s Saudi Pro League title race, having handed Al-Nassr its first loss of the campaign under new manager Postecoglou, the former Tottenham Hotspur and Celtic manager who took charge of the club ahead of the current season. Al-Nassr’s perfect start under Postecoglou through the season’s opening four matches had positioned the club as an early front-runner in the domestic title race before Saturday’s setback against one of its most direct rivals.

Ronaldo, now 41 years old, has continued playing a prominent role for Al-Nassr since his high-profile move to the Saudi Pro League, a transfer that helped accelerate the broader influx of major international stars into Saudi Arabian football in the years since. Despite his advancing age, Ronaldo has remained a productive scorer domestically throughout his time in Saudi Arabia, even as matches against Al-Ittihad in particular have proven to be a recurring source of frustration, both in terms of results and the pointed reception he has repeatedly received from that club’s supporters.

The rivalry between Al-Nassr and Al-Ittihad has emerged as one of the marquee fixtures within the Saudi Pro League in recent seasons, with both clubs investing heavily in international talent as part of the league’s broader push to elevate its global profile and competitiveness. Saturday’s match, sometimes referred to by fans and media as a Saudi “El Clasico” given the stature of both clubs, drew significant attention both for the on-field result and the pointed atmosphere surrounding Ronaldo’s performance.

With the Saudi Pro League season still in its early stages, Saturday’s defeat represents an early setback rather than a decisive blow to Al-Nassr’s title ambitions under Postecoglou. Still, the recurring pattern of Messi-themed taunts directed at Ronaldo during matches against Al-Ittihad specifically underscores how deeply the global rivalry between the two players continues to shape the atmosphere surrounding Saudi Arabian football, even years after both men effectively decamped from Europe’s traditional footballing powerhouses to continue their respective careers in different corners of the world.