Ufaransa yaadhibiwa na Ureno

France Loses a Soccer Championship, but Achieves a Rare Unity JULY 10, 2016

 

PARIS — Cristiano Ronaldo spends a lot of time alone. Alone on the wing, alone in his kitchen, alone in his thoughts, where, by his own admission, much of his focus is on whether he will again win the Ballon d’Or award — the world player-of-the-year honor, which, of course, is for a single, solitary superstar.

Ronaldo does not mind this (or, at least, he says he embraces it). Even by modern athletic standards, his entourage is necessarily small: his agent, his manager, a few close friends and his family. That is it. He often eats lunch by himself, often drives to practice by himself. Over the last 13 years, he has cultivated an image as someone who lives lavishly and luxuriously — estimates are that he is worth $320 million and so the pictures of him on a yacht are to be expected — yet also in relative quiet.

He has his 6-year-old son, Cristiano Jr. He has his agent and father or brother figure, Jorge Mendes. He has his soccer and his stardom and, depending on the particular parameters of the argument, his place on or near the top of the list of soccer’s greatest figures.

But here is the thing: Much of Ronaldo’s life is built upon his place at his club team, Real Madrid. This is not to say that Real Madrid is a house of loners or that there is no team spirit there; to the contrary, the club is strong and rich, and many of its supporters are passionate and devoted and true. But it is also undeniable that because of Madrid’s exorbitant resources — last year’s payroll was estimated at $180 million — there is a culture of stars, many of whom come and go. And Ronaldo, who has been the rare mainstay, is the brightest.

With Portugal’s national team, though, it is different. Ronaldo is still the biggest star, even more so than with Madrid, but the meaning of his presence, and the results, are not the same. On Sunday, Ronaldo will captain Portugal when it faces France in the final of the European Championships, the first time Portugal has been in a major final since it was stunned, on home soil, by Greece in the 2004 Euros.

Ronaldo was 19 then, a wunderkind who cried on the field after the final whistle. It was a brutal, bitter experience, but it did not stick to him, did not tarnish him. Neither did disappointing defeats in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup or the 2012 Euros. In this era, results in international play are an additive to a player’s legacy, a bonus. Consider: Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the near-universal choices as the best players in the game, yet neither has helped his country lift a significant trophy.

On Sunday at the Stade de France, that may change. Ronaldo has said, many times, that he craves a title for Portugal, that it is a dream for him. It is, presumably, a pure one, too: Winning will do little for Ronaldo financially. It will not make him more famous, either. Portugal has a population of a little more than 10 million; Ronaldo has six times that many Instagram followers.