Cristiano Ronaldo and the lure of Saudi money
When in football terms we refer to effort, dedication, hard work, attitude, competitive spirit and perseverance, we all think of one player: Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese star is going through a grey moment in his career. It all started with problems at Manchester United, which he was unable to forget with the Portugal national team at the Qatar 2022 World Cup. "CR7" said goodbye to the World Cup without having achieved the objectives of the Portuguese team. At the age of 37, Cristiano Ronaldo will finish 2022 without a team and fighting with his ex-team, even with the Portugal national team after the hard elimination of the World Cup Qatar 2022.
"He is the biggest failure of the World Cup, quite the opposite, to Messi. He is the absolute winner. He deserves it because he has given me and all football fans great joy with his qualities and the way he played. And he did it for 17-18 years. For me, Messi is the player of the millennium," said former German footballer Lothar Matthäus. Spanish media report that while the Portuguese star is resting from a stressful month with his family in Abu Dhabi, his agent Jorge Mendes is unable to find him a club. So far the only offer Ronaldo has on the table is from Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia, which could earn him more than 200 million dollars a year, an unthinkable amount of money with which CR7 could retire from football in peace.
Cristiano Ronaldo has always been Lionel Messi's great football rival and for the moment he has not expressed any opinion on the consecration of the Argentine 10 at the World Cup in Qatar 2022. CR7 is without a club and is currently training at Real Madrid's facilities to keep fit. Ronaldo said goodbye to the World Cup in the quarter-finals, losing to Morocco. The striker left the stadium in tears and very hurt. "Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career, putting the name of our country at the highest level in the world was my biggest dream," he wrote on Instagram.
The Argentine national team touched the sky with their hands and won their third World Cup in history. It was the most eagerly awaited, not only because of the 36 years without being champions, but also because football had a score to settle with Lionel Messi, a footballer who always fought to conquer the dream of more than 45 million Argentinians. The road was not easy. For more than 15 years he had to deal with another superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo. One defended the shirt of Barcelona and the other that of Real Madrid. Spain's La Liga was nicknamed the "League of Stars", precisely because it had the two greatest exponents of the sport at the time.
However, this World Cup concludes with an abysmal difference between the two. While the Argentine captain was lifting the World Cup, the Portuguese player was training alone at Real Madrid's training ground. Cristiano said goodbye to his last World Cup, according to a post on his social networks, distanced from coach Fernando Santos and with many problems to solve from his personal side. Undoubtedly, it wasn't his best performance in the Portuguese colours. However, he left his mark on the history of this competition: he is the only player to score at least one goal in five World Cups. In the almost two weeks since Cristiano's departure from the World Cup, Messi continued his feat.
Against Croatia and France, he put his team on his shoulders and brought the best of himself at the age of 35: dribbling, speed, fight and grit. Those principles that Leo carried with him gave him the chance to lift the most coveted trophy of his career. In the run-up to Qatar 2022, the football world (press, fans and pundits) said that if Messi or Cristiano won the World Cup, the sport would have its new king. The discussion, over the years, went on forever. "Who is better?" The heartbreaking triumph against the French side led footballingly by Kylian Mbappé was the last page missing from the Argentine star's book to position himself a step above the Portuguese.
"I wanted it very much," Messi said after the match. The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner removed the most gigantic thorn that any excellent footballer can carry inside him. An almost film-like ending. The finishing touch to a whole life dedicated to football. The great debate in the history of this sport was, is and will be the same: Messi or Ronaldo? Who do you choose? The football industry revolved around this eternal discussion: what matters more: the Ballon d'Or, the UEFA Champions League, goals or World Cups? Both players - Cristiano being two years older than the Argentinean star - have similar statistics.
To get a sense of the beauty of this rivalry, one tried to outdo the other. Ronaldo scored 40 league goals for Real Madrid in the 2010/2011 season, compared to Messi's 31 for Barcelona. However, the following season, the Rosarino responded with 50 goals to Messi's 46. Nevertheless, the Ballon d'Or, football's annual award for the world's best player, became a two-man contest for more than a decade; standing as one of the yardsticks for measuring who was better than the other.
Messi won 41 titles, Ronaldo 34. Messi won seven Ballon d'Ors, Ronaldo five. Ronaldo won five Champions League titles, Messi four. Ronaldo is the top scorer at national team level. What was the tie-breaker: the World Cup, the tournament that eluded them both throughout their long and glorious careers. Messi and Ronaldo are the kings of football for the last 15 years. But Messi made one final push, before which Ronaldo could only falter. Although the two men were never on the same field in Qatar, probably, in their last World Cup it was impossible to see their progress in the tournament without comparing them to each other.
Cristiano was left in the quarter-finals, at odds with his coach. He left the pitch in tears, because he knew it was his "The Last Dance" in World Cups. At 37 years old, the farewell was just around the corner. The answer to thousands of doubters was in the hands of Lionel Messi. At 35, he scored two goals "in the most dramatic final" the World Cup had ever seen, ending Argentina's 36-year wait for the trophy. The debate turned to the Argentinian's side. Meanwhile Messi only thinks about being the player with the most trophies in the history of football.
? FORWARD OF THE SEASON
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadrid) August 30, 2018
⚽ UEFA Champions League 2017/18
? @Cristiano pic.twitter.com/gU1YKLnNsv
The problem for Ronaldo is that the debate has changed football's standards for GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) status to such a remarkable degree, that Ronaldo himself would take the simple fact of being the game's most lethal striker. But, diversity of opinion will never be put to one side despite the blue and white conquest. "I knew God was going to give it to me. I had a feeling it was going to be like this. Now let's enjoy it," were Messi's last words to the press before leaving the Lusail Stadium. Messi knew it, this World Cup could not slip through his fingers at the end of his sporting career.
For lovers of the sport, especially for those of us who have been contemporaries of these two "record-breaking beasts", it will be hard to take it all in, to see a professional - according to many of his former club and national teammates "the example to follow" - of Ronaldo's stature being corrupted by money. I never thought that a person so voracious in his day-to-day life could put aside his pride. My innocence and love for this sport made me believe that money did not bring happiness, that those who left for money did not love this sport, but if CR7's departure to Arab football is confirmed, it will confirm that, as Francisco de Quevedo said, a powerful gentleman is money.
