Euro 2016: Cristiano and Me

I’ve never met Cristiano but I feel like somehow I’ve contributed to his success. Obviously I haven’t, but ever since he debuted against Bolton as a 18 year old, I’ve never missed one of his games — except for some friendlies.

I’ve watched Ronaldo transform from a promising youngster — who was sometimes irritating to watch — to arguably the best player in the world. I remember the early days at United when he used to play on the right. He would perform step-overs all day long for no practical reason. As a United fan it was hard to watch. I was used to watching Beckham launch cross after cross with the highest degree of accuracy, and then we got this kid that apparently didn’t have a clue where the goal was. It was comical.

But as the years passed, Ronaldo’s started to progress into a more complete player. He started to create more chances for himself and shoot on goal more often. He started to go at defenders instead of trying to go around them and his near misses became shots on target.

Ronaldo’s body started to change too. He became bigger, stronger and faster, a lot faster. His physical development helped him propel his game to a higher level, he was able to fight off would-be-tacklers and continue his runs and create even more chances. He was diving less, and scoring more.

Ronaldo’s scoring prowess became evident when he started to play on the left wing and attacking the defense by breaking inside and launching powerful shots from distance. His runs were more effective as he was able to get into better positions to finish.

By the end of his tenure at Manchester, he was arguably the best player in the world. The day he joined Real Madrid was pretty upsetting but as soon as he started to score for them, I couldn’t stop cheering for him. In Spain, he became a goal scoring machine, he couldn’t be stopped. It was hard to watch him being so successful at Madrid and not wish he was still playing for United.

Watching Ronaldo come off injured during last night game felt like all the time I’ve spent watching him play, was all of the sudden meaningless and in vain. I got irrationally angry at Payet and at the football god’s for doing this to him. Then, it was nil-nil at the end of regulation and my emotions started to shift. The anger became hope and after Eder scored the improbable goal, the hope became joy. When Ronaldo lifted the trophy, I could see the reflection of my teeth on the T.V. as I smiled and cheered with him. I was happy for him, he deserved it. If you would have asked him before the game to trade his left knee for a win, he would had offered you his right one too.