A nice gesture.
Cristiano Ronaldo was feeling generous after Portugal’s victory over France in the final of Euro 2016. The Real Madrid forward was forced out of the game early in the first-half after being unable to recover from a knee injury suffered during a collision with Dimitri Payet.
Ronaldo continued to play a captain’s role though, and could be seen barking orders and offering encouragement to his teammates as the game went into extra-time.
The Portugal captain won the silver boot award following the 1-0 victory. The award is given to the player who scores the second highest number of goals in the tournament.
Antoine Griezmann finished top with six goals, while Ronaldo was tied for second with Olivier Giroud, Dimitri Payet, Gareth Bale and his Portugal teammate Nani on three strikes.
Ronaldo, in a show of generosity, gave his silver boot trophy to Nani, who didn’t get a trophy of his own, despite scoring as many goals as his teammate.
It could be possible that Ronaldo has enough trophies to fill a mansion, and doesn’t make room for silver awards.
And, by giving Nani the trophy, there was one less Portugal teammate who could hold the European Championship trophy during their homecoming instead of Ronaldo. But it’d be a bit cynical to suggest either reasons were motivating factors for the 31-year-old.
Nani, who was excellent throughout the tournament, seemed happy with his gong, and the former Manchester United winger thanked Ronaldo on Instagram, paying tribute to his leadership qualities.
