In the match of the men’s European football championship between Portugal and the Czech Republic, played last Tuesday and won 2-1 by Portugal, the 39-year-old striker Cristiano Ronaldo became the first footballer ever to participate in six different editions of the European Championships: when he made his debut in 2004 , many players who play in the tournament today were not even born. Commentators and fans are divided on the interpretation of this record, because for some it tells of Ronaldo’s exceptional ability to remain competitive at high levels for twenty years, while for others it shows Ronaldo’s difficulty in resigning himself to the passing of time.
Since the last World Cup in 2022, a debate has been underway between those who believe that Ronaldo can still be decisive today, and those who instead think that Portugal would play better without him, who however is too cumbersome a personality to be removed from the team. Both sides have valid arguments: in the recent European Championship qualifiers, Ronaldo scored 10 goals and Portugal won 10 out of 10 games, and last season he scored 44 goals in 45 games for Saudi team Al-Nassr, winning the Arab Champions League. On the other hand, the Saudi one is a minor league and Ronaldo is no longer the footballer he was until four or five years ago. He has become a little slower, a little less precise, now almost non-existent in pressing on defense.
However, this physiological worsening did not change his way of playing and approaching a match. Ronaldo still wants to be at the center of Portugal’s every offensive action, he shoots on goal from any position, he is convinced that he can score in practically every action and demands that his teammates always pass the ball to him. This, in addition to his poor contribution to the defensive phase, undoubtedly affects the way the whole team plays and the various talented players that Portugal has, such as Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Rafael Leão, all play for Cristiano Ronaldo.
After the match against the Czech Republic, which Portugal won 2-1 with some difficulty, the sports journalist Riccardo Trevisani said that with Ronaldo “many of the players shrink, they pass the ball to him even when they shouldn’t” and that the team is “completely constrained” by his presence. Those most critical of his influence on the national team often cite the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup against Switzerland, which Ronaldo started on the bench. Paris Saint-Germain striker Gonçalo Ramos played in his place, scoring a hat-trick; Portugal played one of its best matches in recent years and won 6-1 (but they lost out against Morocco in the quarter-finals).
Ronaldo has always been a very centralizing player, but in the past it was often convenient for teams to play according to his movements, considering how decisive he was: in the nine seasons he played with Real Madrid, the central ones of his career, he scored 450 goals in 438 matches. Today, at 39, he has lost part of his skills, it is reasonable to think that having such a player in the team is less sustainable, especially considering the high pace at which we play. However, this does not take away from the fact that Ronaldo can still be decisive even at this level and that above all for many of his teammates he has become a point of reference.
A few days ago, Manchester City’s Portuguese defender Rúben Dias said that «Cristiano represents the idea that it is possible to dream and achieve great things. It is important that he is here with us at this stage of his career, it means that he still has the desire to win.” For the Portugal players it is like playing alongside a living legend, a player who has already been in the history of football for years. Cristiano Ronaldo has already won an important trophy with Portugal, the 2016 European Championship, and is already the best scorer ever in the history of the national teams (130 goals with Portugal) and in the history of football, yet he still seems to have the desire to play and to win, even at the cost of partially ruining the image of infallibility that it expressed until a few years ago.
2024-06-22 13:20:03
#Cristiano #Ronaldo #advantage #disadvantage #Portugal
