Cristiano Ronaldo is available for Al Nassr’s visit to Al Ittihad on Matchday 5 of the 2026-27 Saudi Pro League season, and he is expected to start. The 41-year-old has already scored two goals in three appearances this season, and his presence turns a top-of-the-table race into a night with real weight.
Al Nassr arrive with 12 points from four league matches after beating Al Taawoun 2-1 last time out, a result in which Ronaldo also scored. Al Ittihad sit eighth with eight points from four matches, having opened with two wins and two draws before a goalless draw against Al Fateh, so the matchup has sharpened into a test of whether Al Nassr can keep pace at the top.
That pace matters because Al Nassr are trying to draw level with Al Hilal on points, even though Al Hilal have already played one more game. On paper, the gap is small; in the standings, it still leaves Al Nassr chasing a benchmark rather than setting it. For a team that has won all four of its league matches so far, the visit to Al Ittihad is less about survival than about whether the early momentum can keep turning into pressure on the leaders.
The bigger question is not whether Ronaldo is in the squad — he is — but whether he walks straight into the starting XI or begins on the bench. The lineup is not fully confirmed, even with expectations that Ange Postecoglou could go with an attack built around Coman, Joao Felix, and Ronaldo, with Sadio Mané another option and Angelo and Samu Costa in midfield. That leaves room for adjustment, but it does not change the central point: Al Nassr have brought their biggest match-winner to a game that could tilt the standings.
Ronaldo’s numbers explain why the news around his availability lands so hard. He finished the 2025-26 season with 30 goals and four assists in 37 matches, and the season before that he had 35 goals and four assists in 41 matches. FotMob data puts him on 151 appearances and 131 goals for Al Nassr, a return that makes even a routine squad update into the main event.
What follows now is simple enough. If Ronaldo starts, Al Nassr go into Al Ittihad with their most direct route to three more points. If he is held back, the match still matters — but the conversation around it shifts from whether he can shape the result to whether Al Nassr can keep their title chase on track without him from the first whistle.
