You wrote Cristiano Ronaldo's 100 Premier League goals (Sport1)
The year 2022 started and ended in a similar way for Cristiano Ronaldo - a surprising 1:0 loss with a lot of Portuguese on the field, and Roman Sais as the winning opponent.
Well, it's not really similar, but you'll agree that there's something amusing about it.
On January 3rd, Manchester United lost at Old Trafford to Wolves loaded with Portuguese foreigners - there were no less than 7 of them in the media on the pitch, plus the French-Moroccan stopper Saiss who did an excellent job of keeping Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani clean and kept a clean sheet.
Joao Moutinho scored the winning goal for the Wolves in the 82nd minute.
The veteran midfielder was not taken by Portugal coach Fernando Stanos to the World Cup, in a rather controversial move.
In fact, the vast majority of the Portuguese from Wolves did not go to Qatar, and there was only one on the field regularly - Ruben Neves.
This is exactly the player Cristiano replaced when he came on in the 51st minute when his team was trailing 1:0 against Morocco in the quarter-finals on December 10.
On the field he met Saiss - the captain and leader of the defense that made sure to keep a clean sheet in all its games.
A few minutes later, the brakeman was injured, and Ronaldo came over to check on him and comfort him.
Sais had to leave, but even in his absence the Portuguese did not know how to break through the bunker, and the result remained the same.
A nightmare from start to finish.
Ronaldo (Photo: GettyImages, Naomi Baker)
It doesn't really make sense to compare these two games, because their degree of importance for Ronaldo was radically different, but still, it's not worth discounting the impact of the fiasco against the Wolves on what happened to him in 2022 and the sad way it all ended for him.
When Wolves won, with Portuguese coach Bruno Laje, in Manchester, it was coach Ralph Rangnick's first loss on the Red Devils bench.
The German started the term as interim coach with a fairly successful streak at the end of 2021, and who knows - maybe if everything had worked out perfectly, and the team had climbed to fourth place on the way to qualifying for the Champions League, all the heartache that followed would have been spared.
After all, Ronaldo did not set a championship as the ultimate goal when he returned to the ranks of his legendary ex at the end of August 2021. He would have been satisfied with the top 4, provided he was the main protagonist, and this is the status he received even though it would have been better to share it with other stars in the squad.
At Old Trafford, his achievements were flamboyantly celebrated, and we must remember that there were some at the beginning of the year.
In March, Ronaldo scored a great hat trick against Tottenham in a 3:2 victory that was one of the most dramatic and fascinating games of the year.
A month later, he also scored a hat-trick in a 3-2 win over Norwich, although the game against the table-toppers was quite embarrassing for Manchester United in all other respects.
But in between there were also bad results, and the relationship between the star and the manager was never normal.
In the famous interview with Piers Morgan in November, Ronaldo treated Rangnik with blatant and unforgivable contempt, revealing how great his arrogance was.
Would it have been possible to minimize the damage, reach the end of the season in a sane atmosphere and wait for the German's permanent replacement in industrial silence if Manchester United had taken fourth place at the last minute?
It is impossible to know, and it cannot be dismissed outright, even if Cristiano's ego could destroy everything regardless of the surrounding reality.
We know for sure that he longed to continue playing in the Champions League in 2022/23 as well, because he stated so himself.
And so, when the task was not carried out, and the Red Devils finished only in sixth place, 13 points away from Tottenham, which Cristiano helped win on that wonderful day for him, the crack became an irreparable fracture.
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Tan Haah (Photo: Reuters)
With or without Erik ten Haah, Ronaldo wanted to leave for a team in the Champions League, and the summer was wasted on futile attempts by super agent Jorge Mendes to find a solution to the problem.
It might have been better for the club's management not to insist, and to simply release the Portuguese from his custody already then, instead of waiting for an explosion - even if no one estimated its strength.
Because the first season after returning to Old Trafford emphasized clearly that Ronaldo is only interested in himself.
One could develop hopes that he will calm down, realize that he doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, act as a mentor to the young players, and agree to distribute the forces properly to give the maximum effort when he is on the field.
At Manchester United, where he was seen as a living legend thanks to the first term, it was much easier, because his status would only have been strengthened if he had done so.
But these kind of expectations turned out to be completely unrealistic, and the bottom line was clear - nothing good can come out of power struggles with Cristiano.
He had no intentions of harming the club in advance, because when his interest is combined with the group's interest, the harmony will be perfect.
The problem starts when there is a certain conflict of interest, because then Ronaldo will always only look at Ronaldo's side, and will not take into account anything beyond that.
Although his abilities on the grass were significantly weakened this year at the age of 37, his self-confidence was not damaged at all, and this imbalance led to a very significant self-destruction in the second half of 2022.
This made Ronaldo furious with Ten Haag, although the Dutch coach was overall trying to use the squad for the benefit of the team, intending to maximize the benefit to Manchester United rather than Cristiano.
This caused the awkward interview with Morgan, in which countless red lines were crossed, and an unrestrained megalomaniac character was on display, while the vile "journalist" greatly assists in this.
The Portuguese timed this explosion in order to receive the long-awaited release for the World Cup, in which he was supposed to re-present to the public his qualities as a superstar, in order to try and lift the coveted trophy.
Unfortunately for him, these ambitions were also unrealistic, and along the way he lost even his closest partner - coach Fernando Santos.
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He was only focused on himself.
Ronaldo in Qatar (Photo: Reuters)
While the team started the tournament well, Ronaldo was only focused on himself.
After the victory over Uruguay, he demanded that the goal credited to Bruno Fernandez, who lifted the ball that Cristiano didn't touch, be transferred to his name.
During the protocol match against South Korea, he insisted on being in the lineup and cursed when he was substituted.
It was excessive for Santos, who mustered the courage to take the required step, and the celebration against Switzerland in the round of 16 was provided by Portugal when Ronaldo remained on the bench.
At that point, he also began trying to internalize the fact that no team jumped at the chance to sign him as a free agent.
He was simply unemployed, and the only fat offer on the table was from Al Nasser of Saudi Arabia.
Then he cried.
The frustration after the elimination against the Moroccans moved the fans around the world, and the drama only intensified when it was Leo Messi who ultimately lifted the World Cup, but there is something symbolic in the fact that the only (almost) positive image of Cristiano from this tournament was when he came to comfort the injured Saiss.
This concern, together with the tears of sadness, showed the human side of Cristiano's character.
He is indeed an egomaniac, but he is really not evil.
If only he had been able to adapt to reality and conduct himself properly after the loss to Wolves in early January, he might have ended the year at the end of December in a much better position.
sport
world football
Tags
Cristiano Ronaldo
Portugal team
Manchester United