#Cristiano Ronaldo

#Cristiano Ronaldo

It used to be pretty easy to predict who would win the Ballon d'Or. You could just grab a coin, label heads as " Lionel Messi" and tails as " Cristiano Ronaldo," and flip your coin. Ideally it would be a slightly weighted coin in favor of the Messi side, unless it was one of the many years when Real Madrid won the Champions League -- in which case you'd want to reweight or relabel the sides of the coin -- but you get my point.

The Oxford-born head coach has recently been appointed Al Kholood's head coach, the first Saudi club 100 per cent owned by foreign investors, The Harburg Group, fronted by American businessman Ben Harburg. Buckingham replaces outgoing boss Noureddine Zekri, with Cosmin Contra having spent 20 days as an interim boss in between. The new boss is excited for the challenge ahead, coming up against coaches like Simone Inzaghi, and players like Cristiano Ronaldo who Buckingham is actually two days younger than.

The U.S. Soccer Federation is finalizing details for the United States to play Portugal in a friendly in March, with Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium the likely venue, multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions told ESPN. The match, if held, would see Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo play in the U.S. for the first time since 2014 when he was here as part of Real Madrid's tour of the U.S.

Joao Felix scored a hat-trick on his Saudi Pro League debut as he led Al-Nassr to a thumping 5-0 opening-day victory over Al-Taawoun on Friday. Kingsley Coman also marked his league debut with a goal, while Cristiano Ronaldo also got in on the act to send Jorge Jesus' side to the summit of the early standings. Al-Nassr needed just seven minutes to open the scoring through Joao Felix, who was picked out by Angelo before firing a low left-footed effort into the far corner.

Marcelo Brozovic picked out Sadio Mane with a clever pass, and the Senegalese forward kept his composure to finish low into the bottom corner.

Al-Nassr's ambitious financial commitment of an estimated 492 million to Cristiano Ronaldo over two years illustrates the huge economic stakes involved in global football.

Pioli guided the Rossoneri to the top-flight title in 2021-22 before departing in May last year in search of a new challenge.