#Cristiano Ronaldo

#Cristiano Ronaldo

They did so without star man Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portugal striker is again expected to be rested by coach Jorge Jesus. Ronaldo scored twice as Al-Nassr made it seven wins from seven to start the new Pro League season at the weekend, albeit it came in controversial fashion with the home team awarded a penalty 14 minutes into stoppage time of the clash with Al-Fayha.

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.

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

"For me he's [Ronaldo] no problem. He was never the problem and I think that's the past," Ten Hag told reporters after Leverkusen's 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in a friendly.