Cristiano Ronaldo’s performance against Turkey showed he has shoulders broad enough to carry the hopes of a nation, as well as those of Manchester and Madrid, writes David Hytner.
Cristiano Ronaldo, his advisors and the Madridistas who would anoint him as king had it all mapped out. Make a short statement on June 5, before Euro 2008 took off, which made plain his definitive wishes; put the ball in the court of the clubs, Manchester United and Real Madrid, and get on, free of distraction, with the task of winning a first major championship for Portugal.
Did any of them really think it could be so simple? When Ronaldo, the world’s best player and not exactly the shy and retiring type, told a Brazilian journalist that he wanted to swap Old Trafford for the Bernabeu over the close-season and that was his final word on the matter, he ensured that the spotlight on him would be even more intense than usual.
The battle is now on in the boardrooms of Manchester and Madrid — Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, will refuse to yield — and Ronaldo would not be human if he did not feel its fall-out. The only way, of course, for him to have cut through the speculation would have been to declare his continued allegiance to United. There would then have been no story; certainly not for the vast majority of media outlets. Marca tend to prove the exception.
The trouble is, though, that the maestro has his heart set on Madrid. He feels that after five seasons at Old Trafford, during which time he has bought the hair gel, done the step-over and won the lot, it is time for the challenge of the biggest club in the Latin world, who are also, most probably, the biggest club on God’s green earth. His family think so while the Madrid lifestyle would suit him well. The playboy can now take or leave Deansgate Lock.
Ronaldo was encouraged to go public with his career plan by Portugal’s management, who felt it would put a stop to the incessant questions of reporters. It will not. Now, the pressure on him has an added dimension. Might he have been better served to have kept quiet?
Ronaldo’s shoulders, though, are impossibly broad. They carried the hopes of his nation, the dreams of the Spanish capital and the prayers of the red half of Manchester here at the Stade de Geneve, and they did not buckle.
Luis Felipe Scolari, the Portugal manager, had insisted that Ronaldo could handle the situation. He did, although this was only the beginning. The 23-year-old started on the right, somewhat erratically, was switched to the left, from where he began to exert more and more of an influence and finished as the lone striker and with the captain’s armband, after the withdrawal of Nuno Gomes.
He rattled the far post with a trademark free-kick in the first-half — Volkan Demirel, the Turkey goalkeeper, deserved credit for tipping the ball there — and, together with a couple of clean pairs of heels shown to Turkey players, he was involved in the build-up to Portugal’s opening goal, scored by Pepe, the elegant central defender, who is already at Real Madrid. He also crossed for Gomes to head against the crossbar and was prominent in the move for the injury-time second, rolled home by the substitute Raul Meireles.
The merits of the decision for Ronaldo to play his hand over Real will remain the subject of debate yet there could be no doubting his quality nor the strength of his character. Players do not leave Old Trafford at the peak of their powers; it is Ferguson who moves them on when he sees fit. Ronaldo, however, is unique in so many ways.
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