It was 10 years ago on Saturday that Zinedine Zidane headbutted Marco Materazzi in Berlin, ending his career and his reign as Europe’s best footballer. Thierry Henry had been substituted minutes before and, having passed his peak at Arsenal, could no longer claim that title either. Within a few months a 21-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo had claimed that crown for himself.
What is so remarkable, 10 years on, is how Ronaldo still has a grip on that same title. No European player in the modern era could claim to have been at the top for so long. Over the last few years, since turning 30, Ronaldo has managed to hold off the challenges of the next generation of European players. Time will eventually catch up with Ronaldo, but so far Gareth Bale, Antoine Griezmann and Eden Hazard have not.
That has been the story of Euro 2016 so far, as Ronaldo has delivered for Portugal over and over again. After the petulant rage against Iceland’s “small mentality”, Ronaldo at his worst, we have been treated to Ronaldo at his best: powerful, decisive, at time unstoppable. “If there is an anti-Ronaldo plan,” Didier Deschamps shrugged yesterday, “no-one has found it yet.”
It was Ronaldo who dragged Portugal out of the group stage, scoring the two equalisers against Hungary in Lyon, which scraped them through in third place. It was Ronaldo who led the charge with four minutes left against Croatia, seeing his shot saved before Ricardo Quaresma bundled in the rebound. It was Ronaldo who scored Portugal’s opening penalty kick against Poland, in a shoot-out they went on to win 5-4.
Then, against Wales in Lyon, against the one player who can claim to be as important for Real Madrid as Ronaldo is, or as complete in his skills, Ronaldo did it all again. The first was a header that no other player in the world could have scored. The second was finished by Nani after Ronaldo drove the ball towards goal.
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