We’ve all seen the clips at this stage. We’ve all looked at the videos of Real Madrid players wheeling off in glee as Cristiano Ronaldo admonishes himself, or them or the fans, or some unseen injustice.
The general consensus is that Ronaldo is a glory-hunter; that is all consuming passion is his own, personal narrative.
When Manchester United fans used to chant ‘Viva Ronaldo’, the attacker would stand with hands on hips at the half-way line and bask in it all. With a nod of his head, he would acknowledge the fans before getting back to the game at hand.
He is similarly adored in Madrid and his scoring out-put has markedly improved since that 2009 switch from Old Trafford. During his time in Spain, the 32-year-old has won a heap of silverware and has scored 274 goals. 80 of those goals have come in Europe but he is now 573 minutes without a Champions League goal.
For a player used to having his team and nation’s footballing hopes weigh on his shoulders, it must be disconcerting.
Ronaldo is still taking pots at goal and still backing himself from positions where others would not dare but, most importantly, he is not foolish enough to forget that winning comes first. After gliding past two Napoli defenders, during Real’s quarter final at the Bernabeu, Ronaldo picked out teammate Toni Kroos with a superb pass.
Toni Kroos scores a stunning goal after a wonderful Ronaldo assist!
— Newar (@DeadlyCristiano) February 15, 2017
Defenders were drawn to him like moths to a flame and he had the wherewithal to look up and see a better placed teammate, with Kroos doing the rest.
With that assist, the Portuguese has now set an individual record in the Champions League.
5 – Cristiano Ronaldo has provided 5 assists in the CL this term; the most he's registered in a single campaign for Real Madrid. Unselfish.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 15, 2017
In 82 Champions League games, Ronaldo has 24 assists. He has 103 assists in his eight seasons with Madrid, which makes the whole ‘selfish Ronaldo’ theory pretty damned brittle.
He still wants to win and, more importantly, he still knows how to win.
Ronaldo celebrated that Kroos goal too. He does that every now and then.
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