Portuguese soccer icon Cristiano Ronaldo secured Al Nassr with a 2-1 victory over Al Rayyan on Monday on the second match day of the Asian Football Confederation Champions League group stage.
The results came when 39-year-old Ronaldo netted the winning goal against Al Rayyan in the last minutes of a very tightly contested game.
Although the goal was important for Al Nassr because it sealed its first win in the league after the opening group stage match against Al Shorta finished in a 1-1 draw, it meant more to Ronaldo himself.
During a post-match presser, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner explained that he opted to dedicate his goal to the late José Dinis Aveiro, his father. Aveiro never saw his son, who is now a football superhero called Ronaldo. He died in 2005 due to liver failure when Ronaldo joined Manchester United two years earlier.
“Today’s goal has a different flavour and I wish my father was alive because today is his birthday,” he described in the presser on Monday, discussing his goal.
That explains Ronaldo’s celebration at his goal, running in the corner and raising both hands in the air, looking to the sky. Presently, Al Nassr lies third with an over four-point lead in Group B of the 12-team groupings and will be out to ensure they remain within the top eight positions for qualification to the next phase of the competition.
