Cristiano Ronaldo and a penalty that was not: Why could his great gesture harm him in a fight for scorers with Haaland, Kane and Mbappé?

Despite not scoring, Cristiano Ronaldo still became a global trend for a gesture in the match between Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia and Persepolis of Iran, for the Asian Champions League. The Portuguese asked the referee to annul the penalty that he had taken because he was not fouled in a play in which he fell inside the area.

This is Cristiano Ronaldo, an ambitious goal-getter who has understood that football is also played with values ​​and his values ​​lead him to fair play. It is the first time that such a gesture has been seen from CR7, according to the newspaper “Marca”.

Al Nassr is already classified for the round of 16 of the Asian Champions League and in the duel against the Iranian team they only sought to secure the lead in Group E, which they achieved after a goalless draw at the Arabs’ home.

And Cristiano was the protagonist of the match, and not for goals, but precisely for denying himself the possibility of scoring by asking the referee to annul a badly taken penalty.

Just in the 2nd minute of play, Cristiano fell inside the area and referee Ning Ma from China called the foul. However, ‘CR7’ stopped and immediately told the judge that it was not a foul. “No, no,” he told her with gestures, and approached her to talk to her about it.

The referee had already called the foul, but, after reviewing the play on the VAR, he decided to annul the penalty, as Cristiano Ronaldo had requested.

Then, the game was complicated for the Arabs, since after 17 minutes they were left with one man less due to the red card from one of their defenders. Despite this, they controlled the game although they could not get it to the scoreboard and finished 0-0. Thus, Al Nassr leads Group E with 13 points, followed by Persepolis with seven points.

—Fight 2023—

Cristiano’s gesture is striking, since with one month left until the end of the year, the Portuguese is fighting to be the top scorer of the calendar year with European football figures. At the beginning of the year he was criticized for going to play in the Arab League, but ‘CR7’ has responded with goals and in 2023 he reaches 48 goals, only one less than the top scorers in these 11 months: Erling Haaland and Harry Kane , who have 49 goals for Manchester City and Bayern, respectively. Messi looks far behind with only 28 goals in PSG, Argentina and Inter Miami.

With yesterday’s, Cristiano has played 48 games for Al Nassr, a club he joined in January of this year after leaving Manchester United. And in the calendar year he has scored 29 goals in the Saudi League, three in the AFC Champions, six in the Champions Arab Club Cup (UAFA) and 10 with Portugal in the Euro qualifiers.

To close 2023, Al Nassr still has seven games remaining, five in the local league, one for the Champions League and another for the quarterfinals of the Champions Cup.

Meanwhile, Haaland with City has 10 games scheduled, including the two in the Club World Cup (‘semi’ and the final or third place), while Kane expects to play eight games and Mbappé only six.

Thus, Cristiano went to play Arab football, but he did not lose prominence. Goal by goal he is fighting with the greats of world football.

—