Thursday, July 7, 2016

Cristiano Ronaldo hit three international records last night and still people deny him his dues



The Portugal captain produced one of the moments of the tournament - the goal of the tournament (sorry, Shaqiri) - and there was less of a reaction to that than there was to his gesticulations.
Hungary were let in again and Ronaldo was even angrier. The cameras panned to him. He was distraught at the thought that he could do what he just did at one end and his team mates would let a Hungarian undo it.
The laughs that followed amongst the press were widespread and deliberate. They were forcibly loud and genuinely joyous because they played into this lazy narrative that Cristiano Ronaldo is the bad guy and we're all supposed to hate him.
Honestly though, the laughs were just embarrassing.
Here was a man who will go down as one of the greatest players that ever lived and the people who are supposed to be reporting on every record that he breaks and every landscape that he changes were actively seeking his downfall. The people who are supposed to be capturing his timelessness weren't appreciating what he was doing right in front of them and they sure as hell weren't respecting it.
Ronaldo scored again and the media began to filter away from the television screens. That's not what they were looking to see.
Ronaldo has been painted as the villain and a hell of a lot of people were only too thrilled to go along with that.
Most of it is because he knows he's good. It's because he wants to win. It's even because he's vain and good-looking. Lionel Messi is portrayed as the pure saviour to the evil that is Ronaldo and no-one ever wants to even talk about Pep Guardiola's revelations in Guillem Balague's book that he almost lost Messi (who was throwing strops in training and partying with Ronaldinho) because the Argentine wanted to be treated differently - because he should be. Because he's the best.
Imagine Ronaldo retired from international football at the age of 29 and cited not winning as the problem. Honestly, imagine that.
Being convicted for tax fraud seemed to get brushed aside very quickly too and that's alright, because none of that takes away from the genius that is Lionel Messi. Nobody appreciates him any less as a special, special footballer. For some reason, they do Ronaldo though. They appreciate his skill less because they like him less.

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