Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal exit puts himself before the team
Cristiano Ronaldo’s announcement that he is retiring from international football brings to mind a line from Macbeth: “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it”.
Ronaldo is declaring only that he will no longer play for Portugal. Nothing more serious. But the manner of his departure speaks volumes. It always does. With Ronaldo it has – as so often – left the impression that it is about him, him and only him.
“The day has come for me to hand back the No 7 shirt to our national team. I never felt it belonged to me,” Ronaldo said, as he read from an A4 piece of paper in a video released on his social media channels.
But there have been times, especially over the last few years, when Ronaldo made it look like the national team’s interests were subordinate to his own.
And he was never going to relinquish that shirt. Despite being 41 he clearly believed he was still Portugal’s greatest asset. And their best chance of winning.
Contrast it all with Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s only rival for the status of best player in the world for 15 years. Possibly even the best player ever according to the so-called “GOAT” debate which became remarkably intense and polarising. In the end there was no contest. Messi wins on so many levels.
The Argentine’s last meaningful game for his country ended in the unseemly sight of him trying to have Spain’s Marc Cucurella sent off as his thuggish team finally got their comeuppance in the World Cup final. But he was doing what he was doing for the team.
It was the act of a 39-year-old raging against the dying of the light even if he had done more than any of his teammates to lead Argentina to that final, with eight goals and four assists, just as he had done four years earlier when they won the World Cup.
Messi then announced his own international retirement, with his final game – in which he scored – a 3-0 friendly victory over Benin at Estadio Monumental, home of River Plate, in Buenos Aires. It was the right time to go and done the right way.
And Ronaldo? Sadly the way he has gone is bitter and regrettable. Even if there is some irony in that it took Jesus – Portugal coach Jorge Jesus – to finally see him off after what can only be described as a strop from the striker.
It should never have come to this. No footballer has made more international appearances than Ronaldo’s 234. Or scored as many as his 146 goals. Ronaldo, unlike Messi, did not win the World Cup but there was the 2016 European Championship, when he captained the side, and two Nations League titles. His brilliance is undeniable and should be celebrated.
But there is also the sense that for the last four years Ronaldo has actually held back what appears to have been a golden generation for Portugal. The 41-year-old has always denied that his managers were obliged to play him, but there was the impression, especially under Jesus’ predecessor as coach, Roberto Martinez, that that was the case. Throughout the last World Cup Martinez was asked why Ronaldo always played and his answers became increasingly unconvincing. As were Portugal.
Ronaldo’s social media statement is hard to square with his previous pronouncement when, in an extraordinary 1966 words, he accused Jesus of twice breaking his word and asserted that he had been driven to leave the Portugal camp because of a failed agreement to explain his omission against Norway to the public.
Ronaldo even claimed an eight-point document was prepared saying he had never demanded playing time, had respected Jesus’ decisions and that the coach asking him to warm up without bringing him on had been a mistake.
Ronaldo added that he would remain available for selection. But that has turned out not to be the case. Now, on the eve of the next squad announcement – when he was expected to be included – Ronaldo has declared it is over.
He can be forgiven for not knowing when is the right time to go, for clinging on too long. But not this long. And not ending it like this, even if it is all too predictable. Messi recognised that, but it is not always easy.
What makes Ronaldo so driven and self-absorbed is what has also led him to have the incredible career he has had. The goal now, continuing to play in the Saudi Pro-League, is not financial but to reach 1000 goals in professional football. Today he has 985. Again, though, is that about him or the team?
In a way no one should be surprised at the manner of Ronaldo retiring from international football. There was a messy end to his time with Manchester United, when he said he did not “respect” the then manager Erik ten Hag in what felt like a power play which he lost. There was also a clash earlier this year with his Saudi club Al-Nassr, apparently boycotting one game because they were not spending enough.
In Ronaldo’s retirement statement he also declared: “Today the time has come to pass it on to the future”.
That is indisputably true, if coming far later than it should have done. No one is saying Ronaldo, even in his 40s, should not have made himself available to play.
But it was the impression that he had to play, perhaps at the expense of others more worthy of inclusion, that became the problem and, consequently, a significant part of his legacy. Maybe it was simply because of who he was and the status he held. But did it really help Portugal? Or him?
– Daily Telegraph UK