Said Benrahma Shares Man of the Match Trophy with Alexandre Lacazette
Said Benrahma walked off Al-Awwal Park with the man of the match trophy in his hands – and then, like Cristiano Ronaldo a week earlier, decided it belonged to someone else.
The Algeria international had just driven Neom to a 2-1 win over Al-Diriyah in the twelfth round of the Saudi Roshn League on Friday in Riyadh. He scored the opener from the penalty spot, dictated attacks, and looked every inch the star the club signed him to be.
By the final whistle, the award was a formality. Benrahma’s name was called.
He didn’t keep it.
Instead, he summoned Alexandre Lacazette, the former Arsenal forward and his strike partner at Neom, and handed the trophy across, a nod to the Frenchman’s second goal that ultimately killed the contest. One scored, one sealed it; Benrahma made sure the recognition reflected that.
The scene felt familiar.
Ronaldo had done precisely that in the previous round. After Al-Nassr’s 3-1 victory over Al-Faisaly in the eleventh round, the Portuguese captain refused to keep his own man of the match prize, passing it to team-mate Abdullah Al-Hamdan in the dressing-room spotlight and turning an individual accolade into a team moment.
That gesture lit the fuse.
Now Benrahma has followed the same path, and a pattern is emerging across the Roshn League: star names using the league’s most visible individual award to publicly elevate those around them.
Not everyone is impressed.
Sami Al-Jaber, one of Saudi Arabia’s greatest football figures, has already voiced his irritation at the growing trend. After Ronaldo’s original act, he criticised the repetition of these handovers, dismissing it as a “fashion” that must be confronted before it dilutes the meaning of the award.
Yet on the pitch, among the players, the message is clear enough. In a league increasingly defined by marquee signings and big personalities, Benrahma and Lacazette walked away sharing a single trophy – and a statement about how they intend to win games this season.
