The Ronaldo Effect

Over the last decade, the world has borne witness to the emergence of Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the most driven, successful, influential, and divisive footballers to ever play the game. Where exactly would the Seleção be without its talisman? For many casual observers and die-hard supporters alike, Ronaldo’s presence at major tournaments is rarely assessed with the critical eye of one who fully appreciates the significance of what they are seeing. As the European club season nears its conclusion, echoes of 2014 are reverberating through the Portuguese football community with the revelation that Portugal’s captain is once again facing an injury crisis.

With Euro 2016 on our doorstep, PortuGOAL’s Nathan Motz takes a look at Ronaldo’s influence on the national team and speculates as to what this tournament means to him at this stage of his storied career.

It is now into the wee hours of the morning on June 11th, 2014. I am standing in the tunnel leading from the player’s locker room to the team busses at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Ronaldo had finally returned to the starting eleven and had played a decent match with a protective band wrapped just below his left knee. I have just finished speaking with Vierinha, Nani, and a few other players regarding Portugal’s 5-1 demolition of the Republic of Ireland, the last of two preparatory friendlies played in the United States before the Seleção would begin their ill-fated World Cup campaign in Brazil. Around me are at least 50 other journalists from every sector of the press, weary from the day’s exertions but united by a common purpose: to pelt Cristiano Ronaldo with questions when he finally emerges from the team dressing room.

It is a familiar tale really. An evening’s footballing spectacle now completed, there remains one final task for artisans of the written word that follow Portuguese football. Interview Ronaldo. It is an obsession that everyone has, but precious few ever get to indulge. This is common knowledge of course, but it has no effect whatsoever on the media hordes who feel that this is their lucky night even though a hundred others just like it came and went for naught. Can I really judge?

That Ronaldo generates this class of hysteria does make me cringe, however. Let me explain, because it is not that I fail to recognize how important he is to world football. I cringe because the obsession to understand Ronaldo, from his behavior on the pitch to his lifestyle and family, is to the point now where it takes precedence over everything else, including more relevant queries about Portugal’s footballing qualities. Do Ronaldo’s innermost thoughts matter more than the team’s performance?

In his 2015 biopic, Ronaldo, it was made abundantly clear that the constant scrutiny on his life is treated as an affliction. Even so, Cristiano, like global superstars of other major sports, explained that the media attention is just another aspect of the life that he has built for himself. The extent to which he loves or loathes it is not something I am interested in discussing.

What does matter to me is the extent to which the Ronaldo circus affects his mental preparation and that of the team. You could argue this a number of different ways of course. With all of the focus on Ronaldo, there is a certain degree of freedom granted to the rest of the Seleção. Portugal will have several tournament debutantes in the mix this time around, and it must come as a relief to them that Ronaldo will be the focus of everyone’s attention.

But this entire line of reasoning may now be irrelevant if the injury to Ronaldo’s thigh is serious. In my opinion, whether Ronaldo’s attraction of media scrutiny is a blessing or a curse depends entirely on the context. Still, if he is forced to perform at less than 100% of his powers in France, the burden on the pitch and in front of the press will be much greater on many of Portugal’s newcomers. João Mário, André Gomes, Danilo, and Bernardo Silva will unquestionably feel the heat of the media glare without Ronaldo to deflect their attention. Their potential is still undeniable, with our without Ronaldo, but the recipe for major tournament success is a complex blend of variables that extend well beyond the most obvious factors, such as skill.  

And of course all of that is considered independent of the real impact of Ronaldo’s absence to the Seleção’s on-field performance. When I look back on 2014, it was not just Ronaldo who underperformed in the end. It was as if the cloud surrounding his fitness plagued the mental preparation of the rest of the squad too. Pepe, Moutinho, and other stalwarts performed well below their personal best in Brazil, a fact I attribute at least in part to the psychological burden of knowing how much would be expected of them with Ronaldo only quasi-fit.

It is futile at this point to speculate on the severity of Ronaldo’s current malaise. I will say that the best Seleção fans can hope for is that Madrid are defeated this weekend by Real Sociedad and are subsequently overcome by Manchester City in the 2nd leg of the Champions League semifinals next week. Both are distinct possibilities now that Benzema is also out with an injury. Even so, you have to anticipate that Ronaldo will be on the pitch at the Bernabeu trying to do his part just like he did at the end of the successful 2014 campaign for La Decima. What effect that will have on his physical condition remains to be seen.

It is also reasonable to assume that the nature of Portugal’s demise in Brazil has only aggravated Ronaldo’s awareness that there is still unfinished business with the national team. Whether or not Ronaldo ever wins silverware with Portugal, he has nothing to prove as far as I am concerned. Not every fan shares that opinion of course, but I will not attempt to persuade opinions in this article.

The farcical institution of football journalism known as Goal.com proclaimed in a Dec 2015 article that Ronaldo made Portugal the most boring team in Europe. I think what disappoints me most about this perspective, in addition to its irrationality, is how pervasive this misguided thinking is in world football at large. Namely, that Portugal are a trivial nation with a subpar domestic league that just so happens to have Ronaldo at its disposal. Now is the time when Portugal can demonstrate to the world that they are a unit infused with genuine quality independent of its captain.

I appeal to the collective reason of the Portuguese support community by saying that this tournament is of crucial significance to the progress of the Seleção. Establishing a new core of leaders (especially in midfield) is critical because the current U21 generation is richly talented but still requires a positive developmental ambiance when they move up to senior level. I have written before about stability being one of the most important features of any national team set-up. When the likes of Diogo Jota, Iuri Medeiros, Renato Sanches, Bruno Fernandes, André Silva, and others arrive at senior level, they need seasoned, dependable leaders to integrate them into the squad. In the meantime, the U21s need to secure a youth title in order to instill a psychology of winning, especially following the disappointments of last summer. The coming Olympics is a pivotal opportunity for them as a launching point for future success with the Seleção A.

What then will our fate be? Will the “Ronaldo Effect” poison or promote our odds of victory at Euro 2016? Will it be a repeat of 2014 or a galvanizing moment in the history of the national team? Goal.com’s inane assessments notwithstanding, Ronaldo remains the fulcrum about which the squad revolves, the catalyst for our efforts. To him personally, this tournament comes at or very near the twilight of his glittering career, inflaming troublesome memories of injuries past (Euro 2008, WC 2014) and chances gone for naught (Euro 2004, WC 2006, Euro 2012).

Even so, there is hope for resurrection. Portugal’s first group stage match is still 46 days away. When I arrive in France this June, I expect to see the usual tempest of controversy surrounding Portugal’s captain. But I for one dare to hope that rather than shrouding us in despair, it will be a tempest of resurgent energy that vitalizes the Portuguese camp. Maybe 2016 will end in ultimate disappointment on account of Ronaldo’s physical limitations. But what if it also proved to be the point at which the mantle was passed on to a new generation of players forged primarily in Portugal’s own league?

I deduce that there are one or two readers still wondering what happened at Giants Stadium back in 2014. Ronaldo did eventually make his way out towards the team bus, the cacophonous mob of journalists following along as closely as possible. I had seen this routine before and decided to watch it unfold instead of participate in the melee. Several police officers walked alongside him.

One reporter called out, “Are you 100% fit? Can you win the World Cup?” Ronaldo just kept walking as he glanced over his shoulder and gave a wry smile. Looking back on that event now, you can see just how brave a face he was trying to put on to further the cause of the team as they prepared for the World’s biggest stage. In his biopic, Ronaldo declares that if he could go back in time, he would not have traveled with the team to Brazil at all. Does that mean he will make a different choice this time around and decline his place on the team for Euro 2016? Surely even Ronaldo must understand that this tournament and possibly the World Cup in 2018 are his last real opportunities with Portugal.  

Ronaldo has already proven himself as a revolutionary player. I started typing out all of his records as the “first Portuguese player to ever…” and just had to stop. There are too many. Ronaldo is an anarchist in the face of established notions about football. It will be such a privilege to see him write the next chapter in that narrative, for better or for worse.

Força Ronaldo. Força Seleção.

by Nathan Motz