Cristiano Ronaldo feared the worst night of his Portugal career at Euro 2016 final - but it became the best
When Ronaldo struggled to play on, before breaking down and giving up, it was impossible not to feel sympathy for him
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Your support makes all the difference.Cristiano Ronaldo cried two types of tears last night at the Stade de France, two hours apart, on what was first the worst then the best night of his career. This was meant to be the night when he made history, shooting Portugal to the title, leaping to a new level of football greatness. And it was, but not in a way that anyone expected.
This was a match that was marked not by Ronaldo’s presence on the pitch but by his absence. Before Eder’s winning goal, the central event of the evening was a bad tackle by Dimitri Payet on Ronaldo just eight minutes into the game. Most of the rest of the football was just the two teams coming to terms with his not being there.
When Ronaldo struggled to play on, before breaking down and giving up, it was impossible not to feel sympathy for him. This was the biggest night of his life and it had been prematurely ended by a bad tackle, damaging his knee and shattering a life-time of ambitions and hopes.
And yet, two hours later, Ronaldo was celebrating with the glee and enthusiasm of a man whose whole career had been sense of. Even if he barely played a part in the final itself. To see Ronaldo returning to the Portugal bench in the second half, and his conduct before and during extra-time, was to see a man obsessed with the fortune of his team.
That might not sound like a surprise in a game this big, but the accusation always made against Ronaldo is that he is more interested in personal glory than that of the group. But that is not true now, not with this Ronaldo and this Portugal team. If it was, he would have spent the rest of the game sulking in the dug out at the bad luck he had faced. Bad things do not usually happen to Ronaldo, and this was the lowest he could ever have been on the pitch.
But when Ronaldo came back, knee heavily strapped, Portugal tracksuit top on, almost unable to walk, he was urging his team-mates on with volcanic passion. He led the team-talk at the end of 90 minutes, overcome by emotion as he embraced each team-mate in turn, telling them to do what he could not.
During extra-time Ronaldo was taking liberties with the extent of the technical area, chasing up and down the touchline, questioning Mark Clattenburg’s decisions and giving his team-mates instructions. When Raphael Guerreiro went down with cramp, it was Ronaldo who hobbled down to encourage him to keep playing. No substitute has ever looked more invested in the game going on without him than he did in this final.
When it was all over Ronaldo collapsed with emotion before leading the celebrations as well he could and limping up the steps to collect the trophy, crying tears of joy. This was the moment he had been waiting all his career for. He has always made the most of his talent as an individual player, and he has won the lot with Manchester United and Real Madrid. But international football is harder, because the team-mates are not on the same level.
What Ronaldo has done this tournament is to drag this Portugal side up to his level. That is the hardest thing for an individual to do in a team sport but he has managed it. That was why he was as vocal and positive as he could have been after his own personal disappointment, rubbing his own passion, conviction and belief off on his team-mates, pushing them towards glory.
It was an inspiring response to his own disaster, and as such proof of the strength of Ronaldo’s character. Because there cannot have been many worse feelings for Ronaldo than when he was injured in the first half. To see him unable to run, and reduced to tears of frustration, was to see an inversion of everything the football world expects from one of its greatest players.
Football does not usually go wrong for Ronaldo. He hardly ever gets injured, he hardly ever loses, and even when he does he still manages to score. He has an aura of physical perfection and power about him. He is always stronger, quicker and sharper than his opponents. And yet last night that was reduced to pieces.
Ronaldo had only been on the pitch for eight minutes when his initial plans for the night were shattered. He held the ball up on the right, just inside the French half, when Payet clattered into him. Payet’s left foot got something on the ball, but the rest of him clattered into Ronaldo’s standing left leg, which was planted in the ground. His knee had to assimilate the full force of the tackle, and was instantly obviously injured.
For almost 20 minutes Ronaldo struggled on, limping heavily, barely able to jump, completely unable to run. Given Ronaldo’s reliance on explosive physical power, he was utterly diminished. He might as well have been playing blind-folded. It was difficult to watch.
When Ronaldo, knee heavily strapped, tried to counter-attack through the middle but was unable to get out of first gear, the game was obviously up. Ronaldo collapsed in tears, took off his captain’s armband, and was stretchered off to a standing ovation. His dreams were in pieces.
But just because Ronaldo went off it did not mean his night was over. Because he is more than just the captain, talisman and star of this Portugal team. He is a father figure to many of these younger players and feels an immense sense of responsibility to them. He does everything he can for them, and they do the same back for him. He might have hoped to score a hat-trick in the final, but when that was impossible he still found a way to make his dreams real.