Ball placed on the penalty spot, Cristiano Ronaldo stares into space, breathes, takes his time. The referee blows his whistle. The Portuguese turns on the Ghanaian goalkeeper, the leather comes to lodge in the bottom of the nets. “CR7” exults and goes to celebrate his goal towards the corner post. From his ten teammates on the field to the substitute bench, everyone runs after him, surrounds him, embraces him. Once the Portuguese captain was on the bench, we saw the roles reversed, Ronaldo haranguing his teammates at the slightest opportunity and then coming at the end of the match to cheer up his goalkeeper, guilty of two big balls. The Portuguese seemed determined in front of cameras around the world to send a message: despite rumors of all kinds, the group is united around its leader. And everyone is looking in the same direction.
Throughout the first round, in the mixed zone or during the daily press conferences held at the Portuguese training center, from the coach to the players, everyone insisted on this unity. After the victory against Uruguay (2-0), Fernando Santos, the coach of the Seleçao das quinas since 2014: “My team is very united, we have a very good team spirit.” Cristiano Ronaldo when he receives his player of the match trophy against Ghana, explains that he owes this title above all to the “teamwork” : “In my opinion, we were winners all together, we had a great match.” The same evening, in the bays of the 974 stadium, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix rented the “dream” what does it mean to play alongside the fivefold Golden Ball when Raphaël Guerreiro claimed to be “very happy to have him in the team”. Move along, nothing to see.
The Ronaldo case shakes up the Seleçao
If everyone plays and overplays the card of unity before facing Switzerland this Tuesday in the round of 16, it is because before a successful start to the tournament, the Seleçao was shaken up by the “Ronaldo affair”, a consequence of catastrophic start to the season for the Portuguese striker both on and off the pitch. Since the summer, Cristiano Ronaldo had been in conflict with Manchester United, the club that brought him to the public eye and where he returned in 2021. Transfer request, headache in the middle of a match with his coach, bet away from the group then back in the workforce… The clash between the fivefold Golden Ball and his team has been followed for months as one clings to a bad telenovela: we know more or less how it will end (badly), but we still look with one eye out of curiosity and with a certain disdain.
Apart from the level of a Ronaldo more often on the bench than on the field in Manchester, which could raise questions about his legitimacy in the national team, the story could have passed over the Seleçao. But just before joining Qatar, the kid from Madeira dropped a bombshell. In an interview given to Sunthe attacker cuts at all costs: he feels “betrayed” to United, treated as “a black sheep” and did “no respect” for his trainer “because he shows no respect to me”. Inevitably, once arrived in Doha, everyone only talks about that. His teammates, as soon as they appear in front of the press, are forced to speak about the Ronaldo case. We question Bruno Fernandes even more, also his teammate in Manchester, with whom, it is said, he would have particularly tense relations. A cold handshake between the two players only strengthened the rumours.
Before the entry into the running of the Seleçao, the main interested party came to silence the gossips. Inviting himself on the sidelines of training against journalists, Cristiano Ronaldo assured “not [se] concerned [r]» of what is said about him, explaining that he “there is no problem” within the Seleçao, that “the Ronaldo case is closed” and that it is now necessary “talking about the World Cup, the national team” and not of his personal case. A statement that makes you smile when you know that the Portuguese with the oversized ego has never seemed embarrassed for two decades to be at the center of attention.
A player apart
Rode in the media, he knew all the more that releasing a rowdy interview before the World Cup would inevitably have consequences for the Seleçao. Whether he likes it or not, he will never be treated like any other player among the hundreds of footballers on the trip to Qatar. To be convinced of this, it is enough to hear the Portuguese supporters howling in chorus every thirty seconds. “soooo”, battle cry of number 7, in the Doha metro trains. To see these kids, in the corridors of the 974 stadium, reaching out and shouting with joy when Ronaldo kicks in, simply ignoring all the players around. Or these dozens of journalists in the post-match mixed zone who ask the Portuguese star for selfies, going so far as to provoke his own astonishment: “Now journalists don’t ask questions anymore, they want photos!” When it’s not FIFA volunteers who cry when they see him pass by their side. Ronaldo is and will remain, by his career, his record and his attitude, a player apart who monopolizes the attention. The slightest controversy surrounding him will necessarily make ten times more noise than if it concerned the rest of his teammates.
Still, the work to stifle the Ronaldo affair seems to have worked, helped by the divorce finally recorded on November 22 with Manchester. At the end of matches and in press conferences, questions from journalists – when they ask – now revolve more around the match than number 7. On Monday, Fernando Santos had to wrestle with an answer on the attitude of Cristiano Ronaldo , appeared very unhappy on screen when he was substituted against South Korea on Friday. This gives, first fleeing: “I don’t know anything about what happened on the pitch, I just saw him arguing with a Korean. I don’t want to talk about that anymore but about tomorrow’s match. Then, in a nutshell: “I saw the pictures and I didn’t like it at all. I really didn’t like it at all.” Before closing up shop: “These stories need to be resolved internally and that has been done. Final point on this problem.” A good summary, in short, of everything related to the superstar: let us wash our dirty laundry as a family to better appear united on the ground.
“It’s Portuguese to suffer like that”
The group stage, rather well managed (two wins, one defeat), inevitably helped put out the media fires: in six appearances, Portugal had only won their first two matches twice, in 1966 and 2006. Both times, the Seleçao had failed at the gates of the final. She has never done better. However, if the results are there, the Portuguese were neither really attractive nor totally reassuring. On paper, however, the team is solid, counting in all positions players playing in the biggest European clubs. But we saw a Seleçao lacking ideas offensively during the first two games – not helped, it is true, by the ultra-defensive play of Ghana and Uruguay –, and more than worrying in sequences defensively. “It’s Portuguese to suffer like that”, joked Atlético Madrid striker Joao Felix before the game against Uruguay. Fernando Santos was talking about “goals that came out of nowhere” conceded against Ghana – without really convincing, the goals never come from nowhere.
As for the style of his team, the coach himself speaks of a “hybrid system” et “unpredictable” which can sometimes look like “the anarchy”, without finding anything to complain about. The most critical will not dispute this analysis, denouncing for a long time the style of the Portuguese coach, better known for his closed and austere matches than for play nice organized. Despite everything, it was thus, by putting thousands of viewers to sleep, that the pragmatist brought the Seleçao to the roof of Europe in 2016. A feat that he failed to reproduce at the World Cup in 2018 or at the Euro in 2021, eliminated each time in the round of 16. To do better and win Tuesday against Switzerland, Fernando Santos will need a united group around a good Cristiano Ronaldo.