For Cristiano Ronaldo, winning a first league title in Saudi Arabia isn't coming easy.
The Portugal superstar was a matter of seconds away from securing the victory needed to clinch the Saudi Pro League with Al-Nassr on Tuesday, with his team leading fierce rival Al-Hilal 1-0 in the eighth and final minute of stoppage time.
With Ronaldo looking nervous on the bench — the 41-year-old striker had been substituted by that point — and some Al-Nassr fans hardly able to watch, Al-Hilal sent a long throw-in into the area and Al-Nassr goalkeeper Bento, in an attempt to catch the ball, fumbled it backward and into his own net.
The match finished 1-1, the title race was still alive and Ronaldo looked distraught as he sat in the dugout, consoled by teammates.
“The dream is close,” Ronaldo wrote in a post to his more than 100 million followers on X after the match. “Heads up, we have one more step to take!”
Al-Nassr hasn't won the Saudi league since 2019, more than three years before Ronaldo joined the club in a game-changing signing for the country as it looked to become a major player in world soccer.
That drought is still likely to end, despite the derby drama on Tuesday.
Al-Nassr leads Al-Hilal by five points and will guarantee winning the league by beating relegation-threatened Damac at home in the final round on May 21.
Al-Hilal has two games remaining, the first against Neom on Saturday. Win that and the second-place team will be two points behind Al-Nassr heading into the final round.
By then, Ronaldo — the five-time world player of the year — might have won his first major trophy with Al-Nassr, which faces Japan’s Gamba Osaka in the Champions League Two final in Riyadh on Sunday.
After the club season finishes, Ronaldo will head to a sixth World Cup with Portugal — and is free to play in the team's first game after FIFA, in a rare move, deferred two games of a three-match ban for his red card in a qualifying game. He has said this will definitely be his last attempt at winning the biggest prize in soccer, but it remains unclear for how long he will continue playing.
Ronaldo still has one more year remaining on his deal with Al-Nassr and is closing in on 1,000 career goals.
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FILE - Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring at the King Saud University Stadium, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, file)
LONDON (AP) — Britain's deputy prime minister said Sunday that he told U.S. Vice President JD Vance he was wrong to blame immigration for the death of a university student who was handcuffed as he lay dying from a stab wound.
David Lammy, who is also the justice minister, said he challenged Vance in what he described as a “robust” phone call on Saturday. Lammy and Vance have struck up a friendship, based on their religious beliefs and family backgrounds, even though they come from different sides of the political spectrum.
“We had an agreeable conversation because we have got a relationship, but I wanted to make him clear that I disagree with some of the facts that he was asserting and to present the facts to him," Lammy told Sky News.
The call came a day after Vance said in a post on social platform X that there should be “righteous anger” in response to the murder of Henry Nowak, 18, who died in December after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in the English city of Southampton.
Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed to police he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak, who was white. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded man as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.
Vance appeared to blame the murder in part on “the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”
Lammy said he wanted to “emphasize a number of things” to Vance, including that the killer was British and is now behind bars.
"This has got nothing to do with mass migration," Lammy said.
Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder for stabbing Nowak with an 8-inch (21 centimeter) Sikh dagger and sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term.
The case has been seized on by anti-immigration activists and politicians in the U.K. On Tuesday, police in Southampton were pelted with chairs, cans, rocks and flares after a demonstration over Nowak’s death attended by far-right figures and others.
In a statement issued Friday in response to Vance's comments, Prime Minister Keir Starmer 's office criticized people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates allegations of police wrongdoing, is probing the actions of police officers on the scene.
The victim’s father, Mark Nowak, has said the case was not about racism or religion, and that he wanted his son’s death to lead to safer streets and not to be used to create “further division, hatred or tension.”
Lammy also said he told Vance “it’s not helpful to tweet in this way, partly because of what the Nowak family have asked for, and reminded him about their desire not to make this an issue of division and hatred, but to make this an issue of common sense.”
FILE - Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, right, and US Vice President JD Vance fish in a lake in the grounds of Chevening House in Kent, England, Aug. 8, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett/Pool via AP, File)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he visits STARK, a leading defence tech company in Swindon, England, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)
People gather to protest outside Southampton police station, Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026, after the fatal stabbing of Henry Nowak, a British teenager who was handcuffed despite claiming he was the crime victim. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
In this image taken from PA Video, police and protestors clash during a protest following the death of Henry Nowak, a 18-year-old student stabbed to death with a Sikh kirpan ceremonial by Vickrum Digwa, in Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool)
