Talk about being generous.
It was a sad Euro 2024 for Cristiano Ronaldo on a few levels.
Last night’s penalty shootout defeat to France in the quarter-finals was a gut-wrenching end to the tournament for one of the game’s greats.
A boring contest between two of Europe’s heavyweights slogged towards an inevitable conclusion when Joao Felix hit his penalty attempt to Mike Maignan’s right-side post.
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And that could be that for both Ronaldo and his ex-Real Madrid teammate Pepe in their national jersey.
Pepe, aged 41, was immense at the back. The issue was Ronaldo, 39, who looked more of an impediment than a help to Portugal’s attack throughout this competition.
He will no doubt be targeting the World Cup in 2026, but right now – after watching hapless displays against the likes of Slovenia- it’s hard to envisage him doing at 41 what Pepe did in the last few weeks.
But maybe RTÉ panellist Stephen Kelly would have a different opinion on the matter.
Speaking post-match, the former Fulham defender clashed with fellow expert Didi Hamann by suggesting Ronaldo would start for the best teams at the tournament.
“Looking at the four teams on this side of the draw,” began Kelly. “You have Germany, France, and Spain. You kind of think would he start centrally for any of those teams?
“I’d probably put him ahead of [Kai] Havertz for Germany at this stage. I know he’s not performing well, but I’d pick him ahead of Havertz, probably.
“Would I start him ahead of [Alvaro] Morata for Spain? Yes, probably.
“That’s not me being a fan of Ronaldo, that’s looking at what this side (of the draw) has offered.”
Sure, Ronaldo’s proven track record as a phenomenal attacking force naturally gives him credit in this argument.
But it was interesting to see Kelly essentially ignoring his ineffective and sometimes selfish play in Germany with such a favourable appraisal.
It was therefore little surprise when Hamann – a recent critic of Ronaldo’s play – counter-argued the point with conviction.
“Out of the 24 teams, I probably couldn’t name you five where I would play him,” said the former Germany international.
“I don’t think he offers anything these days.
“You can say ‘Oh if you give him a chance’, but how is he ever going to get a chance? He doesn’t move an awful lot, he doesn’t get in the positions.
“Even in the group stages where they played minor or inferior opposition, he didn’t get into those positions.”
To which Kelly replied: “I’m looking at these so-called better teams like Spain and Germany.
“They create chances, I think players like Morata; Ronaldo would score some of the chances they created for him today.”
But according to Hamann, Kelly missed the point here.
The point being that Ronaldo is a large reason why Portugal don’t create those chances in the first place.
“Stephen, you can’t tell me you’d pick him ahead of Havertz. I think he’s part of the reason that they don’t create any chances.
“If you haven’t got a centre forward, most of the time you play with ten men.
“He’s not moving, he gave the ball away late in the game where Hernandez just took the ball off him and walked past him.
“If you play without a centre forward, and they practically do, it’s almost impossible to create a chance because they don’t stretch teams.
“There is no threat, defenders squeeze up and say ‘he’s not going to run away from us’.”
Didn’t stop him from scoring twice last month against the Boys in Green, to be fair.
