Ronaldo’s critical Iceland comments display a petty mentality
HAD Cristiano Ronaldo put his ego in his pocket instead of showing himself off to the world as a bad loser, he would have won over more followers than the 200-million he has on various social media platforms.
“I thought they’d won the Euros the way they celebrated at the end, it was unbelievable,” Ronaldo said of minnows Iceland. “When they don’t try to play and defend, defend, defend, this, in my opinion, shows a small mentality, and they are not going to do anything in the competition.”
Ronaldo was on the scoresheet when Portugal scored seven against North Korea at the 2010 World Cup in Cape Town and he fully expected one of the Euro 2016 tournament favourites to breeze past tiny Iceland in their opening group match. Actually, everyone expected a routine win for Portugal.
Instead, it ended 1-1 and Ronaldo shook the hand of only one opponent before storming off to the dressingroom and taking to social media to lambast the Icelandic players.
Much more is said of someone’s character in defeat than it is in victory, and although Portugal didn’t lose – and they should have won had they capitalised on their 26 attempts at goal – Ronaldo’s post-match behaviour showed him to be the pampered, ego-driven millionaire that he is.
Iceland has a population of 330 000 and eight percent of that was inside the stadium to see them grab a point in their first game at a major tournament. They had qualified for Euro 2016 at the expense of the Netherlands, having twice beaten the Dutch in qualifying.
This has been a year for the footballing underdogs, and the only one seemingly begrudging Iceland their moment in the sun is Ronaldo.
Leicester City’s unlikely surge to the English Premier League title is ample evidence of what can happen when a team of “no-name brands” plays like a team, unlike a big club or country laden with individual brilliance, but who are out to seek the glory for themselves. And Leicester is the global sports story of the last 12 months.
A closer look at Iceland might just help ram some of those classless words back down Ronaldo’s mouth.
They are currently ranked No 34 in the world, the meat in a Republic of Ireland and Sweden sandwich. Last year, amid the dizzying run to their first major championships appearance, they reached No 23 in the world.
Ronaldo is correct: conventional wisdom would suggest that Iceland “are not going to do anything in the competition”. But, they got the point against the strongest opponent in their group and helped a tiny nation, one smaller than the cities of Durban or Cape Town, to dare to dream. And, despite Ronaldo saying all Iceland did was “defend, defend, defend”, he must look at the scoreboard. Iceland drew the match 1-1 and had four shots in the match, all of them on target.
Already Euro 2016 has shown that while normal service might resume when it comes to the last 16 and beyond, no side does not belong to be at the championships.
In the first 18 matches, there were 34 goals scored, and no team had scored three goals up to that stage. And while a team like Germany, the world champions, had three points from their two opening matches and not conceded any goals, they had “only” beaten Ukraine 2-0 and drawn 0-0 with Poland.
Hungary had beaten higher-ranked Austria 2-0 in the first upset, Romania had held Switzerland 1-1, Northern Ireland beat Ukraine 2-0 to eliminate them, and England had to rely on a 92nd-minute winner to squeak past Wales.
Iceland might have been lucky when one looks at the run of play, but to suggest they don’t deserve to be on the same field as the one graced by Ronaldo is absurd and insulting.
Off the field it’s been a different story, and the one involving the hundreds of violent, trained Russian “ultras” has, for me, overshadowed anything in the tournament itself. The sight of the Russian and England “supporters” clashing in the streets around France is disturbing, but in a wider picture there are loud warning bells.
By hook or by crook, Fifa awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia, and in the wake of the violence, Uefa threatened to disqualify Russia if their “supporters” created more havoc. Uefa will be happy that Russia won’t get out of the group stages, and then it becomes a 2018 problem.
In two years’ time the World Cup is on their home soil. One shudders at the thought of what might happen off the field to those supporters who stray off the well-policed areas.