The weather was archetypal Manchester, a world away from the subtropical heat of his native Madeira, yet Cristiano Ronaldo was sporting a pair of oversized sunglasses. “Oh purr-lease,” someone sighed as he swaggered into Old Trafford, followed by assorted flunkies and groupies, but on this occasion, Ronaldo insisted, it was in the interests of looking acceptable rather than cool.
Beneath the sunglasses was a small gash on his left eyebrow, the legacy of a tangle with Mirko Vucinic, the AS Roma substitute, during Manchester United’s 1-0 victory in the Champions League the previous evening. Ronaldo’s reaction to that incident was to tell Sir Alex Ferguson that he had been the victim of an act of thuggery.
Yesterday, with the emphasis on diplomacy as he plugged his new book, he chose to dismiss it as an unfortunate accident. “I don’t like to look like this, but in four or five days I will be beautiful once again,” he said. With that there was a disarming smile, in keeping with the United forward’s desire to project a softer image, a desire shared by his many commercial partners and, presumably, the publishers of his new book, Moments, which is less an autobiography than an extended plug for the Ronaldo brand.
Filled with “intimate” photographs (a small number of which show him with his torso covered), it is a project that would have repulsed Ferguson had it come from David Beckham circa 2002, but the United manager now accepts that footballers have changed and that Ronaldo is the epitome of a new breed: young, gifted and not afraid of self-publicity.
For all that, he is a tough cookie. Maybe not tough enough to stay on the field after his brush with Vucinic on Tuesday, when he left United to play out the final stages of the match with ten men, but tough enough to withstand the rough-house treatment to which he is frequently subjected by opponents, tough enough to keep coming back for more even though he knows he invites trouble with his outrageous skills and willingness to terrorise and even to humiliate full backs.
“I don’t care what they do,” Ronaldo said with a smile yesterday. “They will not stop me playing the way I do. I think my manager does a great job in trying to protect me. Now it is up to the rest of the players, my opponents, to listen.”
What he meant by that last statement is unclear, but it is evident that Ronaldo believes, as Ferguson does, that his unique talents merit being protected. Ferguson calls him a throw-back, likening him to the late Jimmy Johnstone, the great Celtic and Scot-land winger of the 1960s and 1970s. “Jimmy would get kicked all over the place, but he would just want to attack the big bully who had kicked him to the ground,” Ferguson said. “Cristiano is just the same.”
The same, perhaps, yet the two wingers are separated by more than generations. Johnstone spent all but the final years of his career with Celtic, whereas Ronaldo left Sporting Lisbon – and his family – at the age of 18 to join United. Yesterday, he recalled “shaking like a leaf” on his debut against Bolton Wanderers in August 2003, yet within three years, with his enormous potential not yet fully exploited, he was telling anybody who would listen of his desire to join Real Madrid, apparently a more suitable stage for his talents. It was only on the insistence of Ferguson and Carlos Queiroz, the United assistant manager, that he returned to Manchester for preseason training.
It is difficult to see Ronaldo spending his whole career with United, but having signed a five-year contract in April, he was in no mood to encourage the interest of Real yesterday. “This is the right club for me,” he said. “In the past I thought about other clubs, but my agent and I decided that this is the best place for me to be. Not just the club; the players, the manager, the fans, everybody associated with United. I think I’m at the right club with the right people. I love playing for this club and I want to stay for many years.”
Moments of thought
According to Ronaldo, the title, Moments, sums up the essence of his book. Here are a few pearls of wisdom . . .
— “My passion for football is obvious. I also have a boyish side I don’t want to lose ever.”
— “I like to improvise, as ball-dribbling, posing, speaking a sentence or whatever one has to do flows more naturally when improvised.”
— “Football is my absolute priority, but I do recognise that I am very fond of advertising.”
— “Humility is one of the values I most cherish, as well as education and instruction. On the day I have a child, those are the main principles I will pass on to him.”
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