Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United are no longer love. The Portuguese would like to play, but his coach has little use for the five-time world footballer. In the fall of his career, the 37-year-old goes from superstar to tragic hero.
The sensational Premier League scene from late Wednesday evening gives a damn good picture of the current situation surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo. Before the final whistle, the Portuguese had disappeared into the gigantic catacombs of the legendary Old Trafford. The proud offensive star obviously had no desire to use a mini-jobber as a tactical means. And in order to avoid the dwarfing of his legend, he preferred to flee in the 88th minute of the duel between his employer Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur (2-0). Ronaldo misses the final whistle. And as punishment, the giant summit of his Red Devils against FC Chelsa on Saturday evening (6.30 p.m. in the live ticker on ntv.de). What you can not purely interpret everything.
Cristiano Ronaldo, this is a man who once changed football. With his dynamism, with his dribbling, with his shooting technique. What legendary moments he hadn’t given to the sport. Unforgotten is his emotional role as assistant coach in the EM final in 2016, when he, injured early on, guided his team from the sidelines with a bandage on his knee and briefly checked his boss Fernando Santos to the side. Even science has looked at CR7. His overhead kick against Juventus Turin in early April 2018 was measured several times because Ronaldo was so fascinatingly high in the air.
The Portuguese seemed to defy the laws of physical decay. He had that much power. This footballer, who was always tough on himself and did everything to always be in the best shape, seemed to be untouchable. Not even the body’s own biology. Ronaldo – a galactic, maybe even an extraterrestrial? While his eternal rival Lionel Messi slowly but steadily crept off the Olympus of giants, last year he became Copa champion with Argentina and was world footballer again (the choice was very controversial because of Lewandowski’s sensational season at FC Bayern) and in Qatar considered by his team as a title candidate, the Portuguese stood there as a lonely individualist as stable as his statue at the port of Funchal.
But the tale of the supernatural Ronaldo has since been swallowed up by earthly routines. Ronaldo suffers. With a clap of thunder he crashed from Mount Olympus onto the Manchester United bench. Last season, when Ralf Rangnick had somehow maneuvered the Red Devils into the Europa League, the football scientists collected more and more indications that the great times of the world footballer will soon end. And he was even forced off the stage of the giants. No Champions League for the 37-year-old. Inconceivably! For himself too. In a desperate madness for applications, his agent apparently made representations to the big clubs in Europe. Even FC Bayern (where he could have assumed the Robert Lewandowski legacy) and Borussia Dortmund (where he could have assumed the Erling-Haaland legacy) were on the distribution list. But nobody wanted him. What a bitter story.
This transfer saga, the second grueling one of the summer (after Lewandowski’s departure to FC Barcelona), was sometimes so poisoned that it even played a small part in the dismissal of coach Thomas Tuchel at Chelsea FC. The odd coach could not do much with a Ronaldo transfer. Quite unlike the Blues’ new co-owner, Todd Boehl. He saw the huge marketing opportunities surrounding the Portuguese. That’s how people think about him (that is, Ronaldo). The discrepancy in the alpha male positions is said to have been partly responsible for Tuchel’s departure.
Chelsea, that was a rejection of many. So the reports. Sometimes it was said that his salary expectations (allegedly somewhere around 30 million euros a year) did not fit into the structure of the clubs, then it was said that the new United coach Erik ten Hag did not want to let the superstar go. Which, by the way, has now changed. A change in winter is considered likely. If you find a buyer. The last reasonably serious rumor came from Turkey. Galatasaray is said to want to lure the superstar to Istanbul. After a dramatic crash last season (only 13th in the Süper Lig), the giant on the Bosporus should rise again.
Is the giant Ronaldo, who is desperately struggling for support, the right idea for this request? He wants to continue until the European Championships in 2024, which he only emphasized a few weeks ago. If that happens, it will be two exciting years. Two years in which the gigantic claim and the less gigantic reality of the player threaten to diverge more and more. In his homeland, for example, the “forbidden question” is already being asked tentatively as to whether Ronaldo is really still untouchable in the national team. With Rafael Leao from AC Milan, a man in good form is pushing vehemently into the centre.
Meanwhile, the superstar is miles away from form. Even his next incredible goalscoring record – he scored his 700th at club level against Everton just under two weeks ago – doesn’t lend the legend new credit at United. When CR7 plays, it’s usually as a joker and starting eleven in games that are considered to be of little importance. Bitter reports are written about how the 37-year-old misses several top chances at football dwarf Omonia Nicosia. Or that the separatist club Sheriff Tiraspol celebrates its small resurrection. With his first cake of the season. That was in mid-September. Nicosia, Tiraspol, Ronaldo – a list that doesn’t fit the narrative of the Portuguese in world football.
A list whose harsh reality the player himself does not want to accept. The handle pot is his passion. Not the Europa League trophy, which hardly anyone knows what it actually looks like. Before this season, apart from two games for his hometown club Sporting Lisbon in the previous competition, the UEFA Cup, Ronaldo had no skills outside the premier league.
And he still feels called for greater things. He’s alone (at least in Manchester) with that feeling. The giant is nothing more than a joker. A tactical tool. No more key player. His frustration escape on Wednesday evening is the most visible expression of this desperation. The footballer, who was as professional as you can be, used the earthly means of indiscipline (he apologized via Instagram) – and was suspended for the Chelsea duel. He scratched his own legend. For a moment he forgot himself – and missed the final whistle. What you can not purely interpret everything.
