We love to hate Cristiano Ronaldo.
It was Gareth Bale’s Champions League final. And not even Cristiano Ronaldo would begrudge the Welsh wizard of that.
Yet, before the dust even settled on Madrid’s fourth European Cup victory in the last five years, the snipers were pulled and they were gunning for the Portuguese.
Indeed, at this stage it seems that we’re so obsessed with being upset at Ronaldo trying to make it all about him, that we can’t help ourselves but go and make it all about him anyway. The world’s best player must be feeling blessed right now because he didn’t even have to do a thing to become the centre of attention.
And this time, there wasn’t really much of a straw to cling to. Seeing as Ronaldo hadn’t scored the winner like he usually does and celebrated wildly with his top off, we didn’t have the open goal of attacking his audacity to show his joy at achieving what he’d set out to do from when he was a young dreamer in this game.
We had to trawl a bit deeper but the skeptics had no problem doing that.
Another tap in. Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale are two of the best players in the world. The thing is though, if both of these lads had their way they’d probably be playing in the same position down the left wing for Real Madrid. That’s why, at times, it can be tough to integrate them both on the same team.
And even though they have dovetailed well before, we’re transfixed on this notion that Ronaldo hates to see Bale succeed. As if Bale doing something good is going to tarnish the legacy of a man who has won five Ballon d’Ors.
Do you honestly think the most confident man in the world is going to be worried about something like that?
The thing is, no matter what trash lads churn out about it all being about the team, their own individual performances do still take precedence. At the end of the day, if you aren’t playing well you won’t be on the team at all and that’s why you care in the first place.
It’s easy to target a man who wears his heart on his sleeve and believes in himself so vocally and so visibly that it’s clear as day he doesn’t give a damn what any of us think about him.
Mezut Ozil is probably the opposite in that he’s a stone faced cucumber no matter what happens on the pitch, and he gets gobbled up just as much. It’s hard to obey the gospel according to humbleness and assurance at the same time.
Because straight after Madrid defeated Liverpool, the cries rang out that Ronaldo must have been sickened to have seen Bale have his day in the sun. That Ronaldo looked upset that Bale had scored.
That, as the following videos show, couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Cristiano Ronaldo Reaction to Gareth Bale's Goal.
Show them! pic.twitter.com/H9duhDfcl9
— CRC (@CRonaldoClips) May 27, 2018
You can even see Ronaldo jog over towards the sprawled out Bale here, before he kneels down to presumably say fair play to him.
And then, right at the death, imagine the outcry if Ronaldo had been the one seeing his name in the stars here, and ignoring the open goal pass to a teammate.
Then there’d probably be a lot of us calling him a self-centred glory hunter.
We’re lucky to have Cristiano Ronaldo.
