Cristiano Ronaldo has finally got his hands on the Saudi Premier League (SPL) trophy after Al Nassr were crowned champions.But it has been a long time coming, and not without controversy.It has taken three and a half years and and the Portuguese could have been forgiven for beginning to think his time in the Gulf state was cursed, or he backed the wrong horse when he moved there in January 2023. Of course, he will always face the sportswashing criticisms related to Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and oppressive laws.When this season’s title was decided in the capital Riyadh, emotions were high. Al Nassr and Al Hilal headed into the final matchday both with a chance of taking the title, but Al Nassr, two points ahead of their city rivals, only required victory over Damac to guarantee their first league championship since Ronaldo arrived.Al Hilal held up their end of the bargain, beating Al Fayha 1-0. But so did Al Nassr when theyt ook on Damac. They held their nerve, and Ronaldo scored a double, including a free-kick, that reduced him to tears. Ronaldo finally has a major trophy under his belt in Saudi.Here, The Athletic looks at why it has taken so long, what is changing in the SPL and what it may mean for the future.This month has been particularly bruising. On May 12, Ronaldo’s Al Nassr faced Al Hilal, knowing a win would secure the title in front of a 60,000 home crowd. It was billed as the biggest game in Saudi football history and was broadcast on 38 channels in over 180 countries.With Al Nassr leading 1-0 in the 98th minute, and Ronaldo awaiting his coronation having been substituted off, a hopeful long throw from Al Hilal ended in calamity as goalkeeper Beto and former Barcelona defender Inigo Martinez collided, inexplicably diverting the ball into their own net. The celebrations were off.Ronaldo looked in shock, unsure of whether to laugh or cry. He tried to galvanise the fan base, posting on Instagram: “The dream is close. Heads up, we have one more step to take! Thank you all for the amazing support tonight!”With a Champions League Two final to play four days later — the Asian equivalent of the Europa League — the hope was that silverware would change the mood heading into the final fixture.But Al Nassr fell to a 1-0 defeat to Japanese champions Gamba Osaka. Ronaldo trudged off the pitch shaking his head, and was absent for the runners-up presentation.Head coach Jorge Jesus was not quite as emphatic, citing how he is missing half of his team due to injuries. If doubt was creeping into the 71-year-old, it was understandable. He was two-thirds of the way to repeating the most haunting period of his career in 2013 when his Benfica side lost out on the Portuguese title, Europa League and the Portuguese Cup — all to late twists — in the space of two weeks.Ronaldo looks dejected during defeat to Osaka in the Champions League Two final (Abdullah Ahmed/Getty Images)Damac, sitting 15th in the SPL and requiring a point against Al Nassr to guarantee survival, were the team hoping to be the latest bogeyman in Ronaldo’s quest to be a champion in his fifth country, his eighth league triumph in 24 years.“It’s not because Ronaldo wins the league we are going to win more fans,” Jesus Arroyo, advisor to SPL chief executive Omar Mugharbel, tells The Athletic.“Cristiano is a mega star. His legacy and impact on the league are clear. It is as a player, a personality and a brand. It’s been huge, and he’s close to achieving 1,000 goals. I hope he is still in the SPL for many years, not just until his contract (ends) in 2027.”Could it have been different from the start?There is an irony in Al Hilal being the team who were competing with Ronaldo for his first SPL title. If things had played out differently, he could have been wearing their white rather than Al Nassr yellow.At the tail end of 2022, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the state’s sovereign wealth arm, purchased 75 per cent stakes in four of the country’s biggest clubs — Al Hilal, Al Ittihad, Al Nassr and Al Ahli — and were looking to kickstart their capture of top talent.Bringing one of the greatest players of all time to the greatest club in the land made sense. Ronaldo and Al Hilal seemed an obvious marriage. They are the dominant club. The most successful in terms of trophies, with 21 SPL titles and four Asian Champions League trophies. If Ronaldo wanted to lead the league’s bid to become a global player, the conditions were perfect for him to be the poster boy lifting trophy after trophy.The stumbling block was that Al Hilal had been handed a transfer ban in May 2022.The Athletic has approached representatives of Ronaldo for comment.Ronaldo instead went to their less glamorous, less successful neighbours, Al Nassr. Their Instagram page grew from 860,000 to over 10million within a week. Still dwarfed by the striker’s personal following of 664million, it illustrated the shadow he would cast on any club.Inevitably, he came with his own way of doing things. While others train at night when conditions are cooler, Al Nassr switched to training in the morning to align with his preference and daily routine. Ronaldo duly delivered. He scored 54 goals in his first calendar year.It did not translate to a winning team, however. They lost in the Super Cup, the quarter-final of the King’s Cup and in the SPL, having been in the lead when he joined, they finished five points behind Al Ittihad.It was time for Al Nassr to level up the squad. Sadio Mane, Otavio, Aymeric Laporte, Seko Fofana, Marcelo Brozovic and Alex Telles all arrived in a £140million spending spree.Al Nassr won the Arab Club Champions Cup in August 2023, beating Al Hilal in the final. Ronaldo’s brace took him to six for the tournament, but unfortunately for his records, the competition, contested by 36 teams in 22 African and Asian countries, is not recognised by FIFA as a major tournament.Al Hilal had gone big, too. They brought in Neymar, Malcom, Ruben Neves, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Kalidou Koulibaly, Renan Lodi and Yassine Bounou for a combined £320million. They won the league by 14 points and went the season unbeaten.It highlighted the problem many believe has undermined Ronaldo’s team. With only 10 of the 25 squad spaces allocated for foreigners, team building is as much about raising the floor of the team through a strong core of Saudi players as it is raising the ceiling with international pedigree.The season ended in more disappointment as they lost the King’s Cup final to Al Hilal on penalties. It brought Ronaldo to tears and he endured the same fate in the quarter-final of the Champions League.Ronaldo reacts to losing to Al Hilal in the King’s Cup final in May 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)They lost in the Super Cup, again, too. Not even 15 man-of-the-match accolades from 30 SPL appearances last season and 25 goals were enough to drag Ronaldo’s team to the top.They finished third, 13 points adrift of champions Al Ittihad.Last summer, close associates joined the club for the next phase. Jose Semedo, a childhood friend since their days at the Sporting CP academy, was brought in as CEO. Another friend from those formative years, Simao Coutinho, was appointed as sporting director.Manager Jorge Jesus, too, replacing Stefano Pioli. One of the doyens of Portuguese coaching, who has managed each of the big three in their home country and led Al-Hilal to the title in 2023-24 after a 34-game unbeaten streak, was personally convinced by Ronaldo to cross the divide.“Without his invitation, I wouldn’t be here,” said Jesus last week.Conspiracy theories and accusations from opponents…This season, with pressure mounting on Al Nassr to finally get over the line, there have been conspiracy theories that officials are generously giving Ronaldo and Co penalties, with Al Nassr receiving 11 spot kicks, the joint-most in the league with Al Hazem, Al Shabab and Al Ahli.It reached boiling point in April when two Al Ahli players publicly questioned officials after being denied what they viewed as two legitimate penalties in the 1-1 draw against Al Fayha, which essentially put them out of the title race.“Hand over the trophy, that’s what they want,” wrote Al Ahli’s Brazilian midfielder Galeno on X after the game on April 8. “They want to knock us out of the championship by any means necessary; they want to hand the trophy to one person, a total lack of respect for our club.”Asked to elaborate, his team-mate and former Brentford striker Ivan Toney kept it cryptic, as reported by ESPN. “We know who. Who are we chasing?”Less than three weeks later, the two teams faced off. Ronaldo broke the deadlock with 15 minutes remaining and celebrated in Toney’s face. On the conspiracy claims, Arroyo says: “Ask Real Madrid what they think the referees are doing for Barcelona and ask Barcelona what they think the referees are doing for Madrid — it’s typical football.“Refs are doing a great job, even though it’s not easy because the emotions are high. It’s another example of why this is a real league and not artificial.”Ivan Toney is the SPL top scorer (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)Didn’t he miss games in the middle of the season?There were reports that Ronaldo was not happy when his former Real Madrid forward partner Karim Benzema moved from Al Ittihad to Al Hilal in the January window. It was part of an aggressive window that saw over £60million spent on six players. In contrast, Al Nassr signed Abdullah Al-Hamdan from Al Hilal on a free transfer and 21-year-old midfielder Haydeer Abdulkareem for £500,000.Ronaldo missed two games, both of which Al Nassr won. League sources say that clubs receive central funding once a year and suggested that a significant proportion of Al Nassr’s pot went towards Ronaldo’s two-year contract extension, signed in June 2025. They also spent heavily in the summer on the signings of Joao Felix, Kingsley Coman and Mohamed Simakan, which cost around £80million.The SPL made a public statement, re-emphasising that it operated independently and had its own executives and football departments.“Cristiano has been fully engaged with Al Nassr since his arrival and has played an important role in the club’s growth and ambition. Like any elite competitor, he wants to win,” the statement on February 5 read.“But no individual — however significant — determines decisions beyond their own club.”Ronaldo later returned to the team on February 14, captaining and scoring in a 2-0 win over Al Fateh.Ronaldo returned for Al Nassr on February 14 (Mohammed Saad/Anadolu via Getty Images)What financial changes is the SPL making?Last week, the SPL released the next four-year stage of PACE (Player Acquisition Centre of Excellence), which was launched in summer 2023 and spells out the budgets of all 18 teams.The four-year model will see 22 per cent of the budget distributed equally, 22 per cent according to average league position across the previous three seasons, 28 per cent linked to television viewership and 28 per cent tied to commercial performance.“The question is no longer whether players will join the SPL, but rather who next,” says Mugharbel, who points to the arrivals of Theo Hernandez from Milan, Serie A top goalscorer Mateo Retegui from Atalanta and Rennes’ 18-year-old striker Kader Meite as proof that more peak-age players are joining.“The most important thing is for us and the clubs to know that the way to move forward is to have strong financial regulations,” Arroyo says. “We need strong clubs, and they won’t be if they are financially weak.”Although the SPL and PIF continue to invest as they seek to grow, Arroyo says they are on the road to a SPL version of the Premier League’s profit and sustainability Rules (PSR).“There are still discussions about the implementation, but the goal is to mirror Europe. It’s going to be gradual as there is an important project across the kingdom, which is the privatisation of the clubs. We have seven clubs privatised. By next season, I estimate it will be 10 or 11.”What does the future hold for Ronaldo?Al Qadsiah, managed by Brendan Rodgers, have rapidly become a force since being privatised, while Al Kholood became the only foreign and 100 per cent privately-owned SPL club last year.Last month, PIF sold a 70 per cent controlling stake in Al Hilal to Kingdom Holding Company. The deal, valued at around $373million, saw the country’s ‘crown jewel’ move into private hands.“It raises questions about how greatly Ronaldo is embedded into Saudi society that he is able to make public statements and that his club has been maintained within PIF hands,” says Simon Chadwick, professor of Afro-Eurasian sport at France’s Emlyon Business School.“His tourism deal is one part, but he’s now investing in clubs like Almeria and business start-ups alongside Saudi money. Does his partnership extend to him being able to source investment funding from the country?“It contrasts with Lionel Messi (and his move to Inter Miami in MLS). Adidas and Apple are playing a very important role in funding the signing, and it seems he will become a shareholder of Inter Miami upon retirement. It pits two very different business models against each other.”The dream for Saudi had been to persuade Messi to join, but Messi hitched his wagon to MLS and Inter Miami.Lionel Messi moved from Europe to join Inter Miami in MLS (Chris Arjoon/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)These are two emerging leagues that, in time, both hope to become a destination league for the best players on the planet rather than a gilded retirement home. Which league succeeds, perhaps more so than even their own performances, will dictate who best enhanced the final chapter of their legacy.The withdrawal of future PIF funding for LIV Golf has led to questions over whether there could be a similar change of heart over football.This is batted away by Saudi league sources, who point to the recent investment in high-profile players and the building of new stadiums.“Many people have said the bubble has burst — it has just changed shape,” says Chadwick. “Fiscal realism hit Saudi in 2025, and the war in the Gulf is concentrating minds on revenues, regional order, risk assessments around event hosting.“Across 2025, there was a recalibration of the economy and industry where we saw projects being scrutinised, curbed, cut back. No Ronaldo-type signings. Sport is a very small part of what they’re trying to do.”Ronaldo might have retired by then, but he still has the insatiable thirst for goals and records, even at 41.His tally for club and country is 967. Ronaldo hopes to be the first player, at least officially in strictly professional games, to reach 1,000. But what he really needed to justify his time in Saudi Arabia was the trophy that has now duly arrived.