Ronaldo questioned again: Why Al-Nassr title-winning talisman not nominated for Ballon d’Or despite seven-year trophy drought ended

Why Cristiano Ronaldo is missing from the 2026 Ballon d’Or shortlist Cristiano Ronaldo missed out on the Ballon d’Or shortlist for the fourth consecutive year despite leading Al-Nassr to a long-awaited domestic title and producing another strong individual campaign for club and country.The omission is particularly interesting as the 2026 30-man shortlist includes two players from the Saudi Roshn League – Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr teammate Sadio Mané and Al-Qadsiah forward Julián Quiñones.So while Ronaldo’s exclusion may not exactly be unprecedented, depending on who you ask, the presence of two players from the same league inevitably begs the question: what exactly separated the nominated pair from the five-time Ballon d’Or winner?

Ronaldo’s problem in the Saudi League has followed him for four years

The nominations for the 2026 Ballon d’Or were announced by France Football on Tuesday, with Ronaldo once again missing from the original list of contenders. Meanwhile, his arch-rival Lionel Messi was nominated for the seventeenth time, with the Argentine representing MLS as the league’s only nominee.It is the fourth year in a row that the Portuguese superstar has failed to receive a nomination.This represents a marked change from earlier in his career. Ronaldo appeared on the initial Ballon d’Or shortlist for 18 consecutive years, starting in 2005 and continuing until his last nomination in 2022.His shortlisting began after his move to Saudi Arabia.Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr in January 2023, shortly after his contract with Manchester United was terminated, and has not appeared among the Ballon d’Or contenders since.One obvious explanation is the position of the Saudi Roshn League compared to Europe’s major competitions, a factor that dominates much of the narrative surrounding his candidacy.Ronaldo continued to produce impressive individual numbers in Saudi Arabia, but the move took him out of Europe’s club competitions, which traditionally provide some of the strongest platforms for Ballon d’Or contenders.The league’s reputation may be part of the discussion, even if its global standing is not as low as some assumptions suggest. As of 17 March 2026, the Saudi Roshn League was ranked 36th in the world by Global soccer rankingswith a score of 79.3. This puts it outside the level of Europe’s leading domestic competitions, but it also shows that the league is not considered irrelevant or completely devoid of competitive value.There is also the matter of major honors.Ronaldo had previously endured a long trophy drought with Al-Nassr, but that particular argument changed in May 2026 when he finally helped the club win the Saudi Pro League title in 2025-26.He scored twice in a 4–1 win over Damac on the final day of the season, a result that officially secured Al-Nassr’s first league title in Saudi Arabia in seven years.It was Ronaldo’s first domestic major league trophy with the Riyadh club, ending his major official trophy drought in Saudi Arabia.And Ronaldo was not just a passenger in this success.He scored 28 goals in the Roshn League and finished second in the scoring table, five behind Quiñones. The Al-Nassr title was therefore achieved with Ronaldo as one of the main figures in their campaign.

So why Mané and Quiñones but not Ronaldo?

This is where Ronaldo’s case gets complicated.He cannot point to a stronger league position than the two players from Saudi Arabia who made the list, as both Mané and Quiñones were part of the same competition and were both nominated.Ronaldo also cannot use the league title itself as a decisive argument. Although he helped Al-Nassra win the championship, Mané was his team-mate in the title-winning side, while Quiñones finished above him in the league scoring table.That doesn’t erase Ronaldo’s contribution, but the comparison is less straightforward. The selectors were clearly willing to recognize the performances from the Saudi league, so the problem was not just that the competition was outside of Europe.Julián Quiñones received his first Ballon d’Or nomination after his debut season in the Saudi League. The Mexican striker finished as the competition’s top scorer with Al-Qadsiah, scoring 33 goals, 5 more than Ronaldo.However, his strongest argument went beyond his club form.Quiñones also impressed at the 2026 World Cup, scoring four goals and adding one assist for Mexico.Mexico were eliminated in the Round of 16, the same stage at which Portugal’s campaign ended.Ronaldo scored three goals at the World Cup before Portugal’s elimination, meaning the gap between them wasn’t staggering on the international stage either.But Quiñones had the edge in Saudi scoring, while Ronaldo’s advantage came thanks to Al-Nassr’s success. Since both players had much of their case built in the same league, voters may have viewed Quiñones’ scoring and World Cup results as a more compelling overall package.The other candidate from Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is Ronaldo’s own teammate.Sadio Mané scored just 10 goals and provided six assists in the Roshn League last season, numbers significantly lower than Ronaldo’s 28 league goals.However, Mané’s international resume appears to have strengthened his case.He helped Senegal reach the final of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations and subsequently win the tournament, although the Confederation of African Football later stripped Senegal of the title after an administrative decision ruled that the team had lost the match because the players had temporarily walked off the field to protest a late penalty.Mané’s 2026 World Cup campaign was less impressive. He failed to score and recorded one assist as Senegal were eliminated in the 32nd.Even so, Mané’s nomination shows that the voters did not evaluate players from Saudi Arabia only based on league statistics. His case was built more on his international contribution, while Quiñones combined a top-scoring season with a productive World Cup.Meanwhile, Ronaldo scored 28 goals in the Saudi league, the Al-Nassr league title and three goals in the World Cup. His numbers were stronger than My Home’s, but the voting seemed to favor certain stories and other criteria over numbers.

Ronaldo’s 2025 case makes the omission all the more interesting

There’s another reason the current omission draws attention: Ronaldo failed to make the 2025 Ballon d’Or shortlist despite a similarly strong resume.That year, he helped Portugal win the 2025 UEFA Nations League, finished as the top scorer in the Saudi Roshn League and took Al-Nassr to third place, behind champions Al-Ittihad and runners-up Al-Hilal.Even this combination was not enough for him to be nominated.After being left out of the 2025 shortlist, Ronaldo broke his silence and criticized the award, describing the Ballon d’Or as “fictitious”.The commentary made it clear that he doesn’t see the omission as a neutral reflection on his season. It also added another layer to the debate about his relationship with the prize, especially after his departure from European football.

How are the Ballon d’Or criteria measured?

But the Ballon d’Or was never just about home statistics, one trophy or where the team finished in the league. France Football actually judges it based on three things: how a player performed individually, what their team achieved together and how they behaved on and off the pitch. So league position is only one piece of a much bigger picture that also weighs on a player’s overall impact and consistency throughout the season. And because the award focuses on players from anywhere in the world, not just the top European leagues, the entire comparison takes place on a global stage.The voting therefore combines performances, achievements and the profile of the player during the evaluated period. The level of competition is not one of the three official criteria but still tends to factor into the discussion when selectors consider a player’s case, which may help explain why Ronaldo’s impressive numbers in Saudi Arabia don’t carry the same weight they once did when competing for Real Madrid or Manchester United.Still, the Saudi League cannot be considered an automatic disqualification. Quiñones and Mané made the list, meaning voters were willing to recognize the competition’s performances when they felt the wider case was strong enough.So Ronaldo’s problem may have less to do with one missing success than with how his entire season stacks up against everyone else once performances, team success, competition level and behavior are considered. The criteria may apply as fairly to him as anyone else on the shortlist, but the numbers tell their own story: Ronaldo has not been nominated once since leaving European football for Saudi Arabia in 2023, no matter how strong his season has been.

Ronaldo’s Ballon d’Or legacy remains unsurpassed

Whatever the reason for his latest omission, Ronaldo remains one of the most nominated players in the award’s history.He appeared on the Ballon d’Or initial shortlist 18 times, more than any other player.That puts him one nomination ahead of Lionel Messi, his arch-rival across an era of football dominated by the pair.Italy and AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini is third on the list with 13 nominations, while Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer and Karim Benzema have each been nominated 12 times.Ronaldo’s last nomination came in 2022, after which his name disappeared from the list following his move to Al-Nassr.However, the shortlist for 2026 includes Saudi football representation through Mané and Quiñones, while Messi is the sole representative of the American league.The wider 30-man list is dominated by players from Europe’s major competitions, with a heavy presence from Spain’s World Cup-winning team and several Paris Saint-Germain players following their Champions League triumph in the 2025-26 season.Ronaldo’s numbers and achievements give him a credible case, especially after Al-Nassr’s league title. But the shortlist reflects the voters’ preference for other combinations of individual form, international exposure, club success and level of competition. The fact that Mané and Quiñones were selected shows that players from Saudi Arabia were not excluded; Ronaldo’s case simply did not make it to the final thirty this time.