RIYADH, October 7, 2024 – If someone was entertained by performance on the field at the Alawwal Park in Riyadh, the home for AlNassr SC – Ronaldo’s team - it’s quite obvious that he will surely be amused by the actions from Al Nassr’s Curva Nord. Curva Nord – which is a definition taken from Italian’s stadium typical allocation for hard core fans – is a football fanatic and passionate supporter group of the Saudi club.

A SEA OF YELLOW What the Curva Nord does in the gallery is nothing but crazy. It feels like a sea of yellow, all the fans wear their club home jerseys and they use their drums, portable speakers, big banners and flags to make the atmosphere electrifying throughout the game.  

AlNassr’s mascot Knight 55 also joins the fans in the gallery before the start of the game and the fans go crazy shakings hands one with the other while chanting the names of the players. The other night right before the match between the locals and Al- Orobah, you couldn’t help noting a red jersey among thousands of yellow ones.

"RONALDO'S BIGGEST FAN" More specifically, Manchester United jersey. The man who wore it is named Yash Parker, who works in a tech company in Mumbai. The 35-year-old was in Riyadh for work and since he claims to be the biggest Ronaldo fan, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity for the second time in three years to see Ronaldo playing in front of him.

“I had gone to Manchester back in 2022 when he was part of the club for the second tenure. But I didn’t get to see him. He was benched by Erik ten Hag. I didn’t get the tickets as well,” said Yash with a satisfied look as Ronaldo had scored the opening goal from penalty. He later also assisted Sadjo Mane in one of his two goals in their 3-0 win over their opponents.

“It was the Manchester derby. City won the game 6-3 against United. I was quite devastated on that day,” said Yash, who said he knows meeting Ronaldo is written in his destiny.

MANCHESTER UNITED JERSEY “I’m a big Cristiano Ronaldo fan. As you have seen, I’m wearing a Manchester United jersey with Ronaldo on my back all the time. I’ve been following Manchester United since 1999. So it’s about 25 years. Ronaldo is like an icon for us. Seeing him play live is a dream come true. I’m looking forward to seeing him scoring 1000 goals and making a milestone here.

“I’ve been following Ronaldo since he started for Manchester United. Before that, he was part of Sporting Lisbon and I have seen him grow up since he was a 17 years old kid,” said Yash, who witnessed another Al-Nassr match against top-ranked Al-Hilal on November and he was not happy about the result (Al-Nassr lost 1-3).

“This was like a one-sided game. I’m hoping to see Al-Nassr versus Al-Hilal again. It’s the best possible game in Saudi right now. So I think that is going to be a blockbuster,” he said, defining the atmosphere and fans at the Alawwal Park ‘the best’ experience in his life to date.