Cristiano Ronaldo has been beaten in the race by another former Manchester United player for a place in the Saudi Pro League ‘team of the season’.
A year ago there was some controversy over whether or not Ronaldo deserved to be in the Premier League team of the season.
Sure he had scored 18 league goals for a weak United side, but the fact that he beat top scorer Son Heung-min to 11 certainly caused some outrage.
However, the Portuguese star has failed to become part of the best lineup of the season in the elite Saudi championship.
Despite managing to score 14 goals in the league and finish the season as the league’s fifth top scorer, even though he joined late, he hasn’t made the team of the season.
Instead, Odion Ighalo is flanked by Firas Al-Buraikan and Mourad Batna in the attacking trio, meaning the league’s top scorer Abderrazak Hamdallah also loses his place in the XI.
The team was picked by OPTA, so it’s obviously been picked by some stats we can’t get our hands on, because the absence of Hamdallah and second-leading scorer Anderson Talisca seems odd.
Ighalo was the league’s third top scorer with 19 goals in 27 games, which is not as good as last year when he scored 24 goals.
Goalkeeper Marcelo Grohe, defenders Madallah Al-Olayan, Ahmed Hegazi, Ahmed Sharahili and Ghislain Konan were also part of the formation, while in the midfield, Gustavo joined Alejandro Romero (Kaku) and Romarinho.
Here’s Opta’s Saudi Arabian Super League TOTS :
🇳🇬 @ighalojude leads the line 🦅
5⃣ players from the champions @ittihad_en 🟡⚫️Here's your #RoshnSaudiLeague Team of The Season presented by @OptaAnalyst 🔢 pic.twitter.com/ynZgxDcQC8
— Roshn Saudi League (@SPL_EN) June 7, 2023