Toney on Target: RSL's sharpest shooter taking aim at Ronaldo title | OneFootball

Ivan Toney has never been short of confidence.

As a striker, he knows how good he can be, so after his debut season at Al Ahli, when he concluded the campaign with a flurry to net 14 goals in his last 14 games to finish second in the race for the Roshn Saudi League golden boot, he knew there was even more to come.

In part, that was due to what he accepted, in hindsight, was a longer-than-anticipated period of adjustment and acclimatisation to his new life in Jeddah. To the unique challenges of playing in the heat and humidity in the warmer months in Saudi Arabia.

But, having settled fully into his surroundings, and with a season under his belt and a fresh one on the horizon, Toney was aiming high - back before a ball in the 2025-26 RSL was kicked.

“Once I got going, the goals came,” the England international told The Guardian. “I felt like I could have scored a lot more, but even so I finished as the second-top scorer in the league in my first season - somewhere that is completely new to me. I feel like it is an achievement.

“This season, I am hoping to take first spot and hopefully that will help the team and win games and get where we need to be.”

As has been proven, Toney is a man of his word. While there remains plenty of the season to go, that top position in the scoring charts is now his after a run of form hotter than a summer’s day in Jeddah.

Netting 12 times in seven January matches, Toney took the RSL Player of the Month award and, at the same time, reeled in two-time golden boot Cristiano Ronaldo at the summit of the 2025-26 scoring standings, climbing to 19 goals.

Heading into Matchweek 22, he perches one ahead of Al Qadsiah’s Julian Quinones and two clear of his Al Nassr counterpart.

The irrepressible Ronaldo, despite now in his 40s, has near enough had a stranglehold on the golden boot for the past two seasons, pretty much leading the way throughout on his way to back-to-back accolades.

But Toney, as he acknowledged last year, is determined to make that award his own this term. While team success is the ultimate reward, don’t for a second think that strikers don’t want that individual honour to go along with it. It’s in their DNA.

Since the league resumed at the end of December, Toney has netted 14 goals in 11 games, failing to score only twice. In a three-game spell last month that comprised Al Khaleej, NEOM Sports Club and Al Ettifaq, he found the net seven times. Remarkably, it included two hat-tricks.

Toney, 29, is dominating in Ronaldo-esque fashion, with seven Man of the Match awards to his name as well - placing him well, also, in the battle to be named the 2025-26 SPL Fans' Player of the Season.

More broadly, his richer-than-rich vein of form has helped haul Al Ahli firmly into title contention; with 20 games gone, Matthias Jaissle’s side in third but a mere three points behind leaders Al Hilal.

Like Toney’s superb streak, their run stands at 10 games without defeat, including what could prove to be a precious point last week at Kingdom Arena.

While Toney, Quinones - the Mexican is enjoying a similarly prolific second season in Saudi Arabia - and Ronaldo remain so tight in terms of the total number of goals, what’s interesting is to compare the three. Intriguingly, they are all very different in how they play and, subsequently, how they score their goals.

Toney, for instance, is far more economical in his output. While Ronaldo led the scoring charts for a lot of the campaign, he also takes far more shots than any player in the competition.

In fact, his 102 shots is almost double Toney’s 54, while Quinones has attempted 67. It makes the former Brentford man the league’s most effective striker, his conversion rate of 65 percent higher than any other player to have reached double figures.

He may not be as involved in overall play as some other players – although, he has contributed four assists, too - but when an opportunity falls his way, Toney typically pounces. To that, all 19 of his RSL goals this term have come from inside the area.

Some may point to six of that tally coming from the penalty spot, but what we know of penalties these days is that they are far more than the “lottery” they are often perceived to be.

There is an innate skill required to convert under the weight of expectation, and Toney has so far been perfect from the spot this season, converting all six opportunities to have fallen his way. Incredibly, his record from the spot since arriving the RSL reads 16 taken, 16 converted.

This campaign alone, Toney dispatched penalties in injury-time against Al Riyadh and Al Taawoun, the latter coming in the 14th minute of injury-time to seal a 2-1 win against top-of-the-table rivals.

Clearly, Toney is comfortable taking on the responsibility. It’s what the best leaders do - and, at the moment, he is certainly leading from the front.

With Al Ahli also in contention to retain the continental crown Toney was instrumental in capturing last year, and the Jeddah giants having already qualified for the knockout rounds, there remains much to play for - for both club and player.

Toney once quipped that he does whatever “makes him happy”, and there’s nothing a striker enjoys more than scoring and contributing to wins. Right now, he must be among the most content men in the RSL.