Cristiano Ronaldo: Is Euro 2016 the last chance for Portugal great?

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(CNN)Cristiano Ronaldo is not just a soccer player — he’s an icon, a global marketing phenomenon, the highest-paid athlete on the planet, and the face of one of the game’s most famous clubs.

The first sports star to have 200 million followers across social media, including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Ronaldo is out on his own when it comes to pushing his way to the top.
According to Forbes, he has earned $88 million over the past 12 months — $56 million of that coming through his salary and bonuses at Real Madrid, with $32 million courtesy of numerous endorsements.
He’s become quite the brand … there is the CR7 clothing line, his own personal fragrance, his hotel range, his headphones — and that’s before his $20 million a year deal with boot provider Nike.
On the field, he’s also doing the business.
He’s the all-time leading goalscorer for Real Madrid, has scored more Champions League goals than anyone else in history, and is Portugal’s leading marksman too.
Add his three Champions League winner’s medals, four domestic league titles in Spain and England and three FIFA Ballon d’Or awards, and it’s easy to see why he’s one of the most famous men on the the planet.

Ice baths

“Cristiano Ronaldo is so successful because he is really serious, really professional,” his former Real manager Carlo Ancelotti told CNN.
“Usually when we got back at 3 a.m. from away games, instead of going to bed he would take an ice bath.”
Ronaldo’s work rate and desire to improve is frequently mentioned by those who have worked with the player in the past. His undoubted ability and match-winning moments have gained him millions of fans across the world.
And yet, for all his success, his countless trophies and goals, he continues to divide popular opinion. While few doubt Ronaldo’s talent, his perceived arrogance and vanity rankles with some football fans.
    The ripped torso, the shirtless posing and the manicured image have given his critics plenty of ammunition in maintaining their argument that he is one of the most self-absorbed players on the planet.
    After the player released his own film, a documentary detailing his life, Guardian journalist Daniel Taylor came to the conclusion that the finished product was so vain “it is difficult not to come away with the feeling that Ronaldo must shout his own name during sex.”
    His teammates, though, describe an athlete who is dedicated to his profession.
    “He’s one of those players who polarizes opinion,” Owen Hargreaves, who played alongside Ronaldo at Manchester United, told CNN.
    “Everybody loved him as a teammate and I think people misunderstood his body language because he was the ultimate competitor.
    “People underestimate his work ethic and determination. As much as everyone thinks it’s all about him, he got there because he pushed himself.”

    Ronaldo

    Ronaldo joined Nacional after impressing at amateur club Andorinha, where his father Jose Dinas worked as the kit man.
    Even as a seven-year old he possessed quick feet, exceptional control and a hatred of losing — he was known to cry if his team did not win, a habit that led to him being nicknamed “chora” or “cry baby” by his teammates.
    Not that it detracted from his talent — the word had already got out about the boy at Nacional.

    Sporting chance

    At Alcochete, the home of Sporting Lisbon’s academy, one of the finest in Europe, they could barely believe their eyes when Ronaldo took part in a three-day trial.
      “I remember Ronaldo coming to us for his trial — he had exceptional talent with the ball — he had everything,” Aurelio Pereira, who led the club’s academy and recruitment program, told CNN.
      “He arrived at Sporting not knowing anybody, but he had this great personality and he was soon telling everyone else what to do. He was the boss,” the 68-year old added.
      But the transition from Madeira to Lisbon wasn’t easy for Ronaldo, who moved to the mainland aged 12.
      He missed his family — his father was battling alcoholism — while he was often teased by his teammates for his accent.
      Not that there was any teasing when he had the ball at his feet.
      “It was difficult for me to say that he would go on to become one of the best in the world when I first saw him, but I could tell he was going to be amazing,” Pereira said.
      “He was different to the other players — he had something else. I think it was in 2004 that I finally began to think that he would become the best in the world.”
      In more than 40 years at the club, Pereira has helped Sporting unearth some of Portugal’s most talented players.
      He watches Ronaldo’s games on television like a proud grandfather, and the two men share phone calls on a regular basis.
      “We spoke just last week,” Pereira said. “I watched the Champions League final and he showed the same kind of responsibility for Real that he did as a youngster.
      “His personality shone through in the way he took the penalty in the shootout — he always wanted to take responsibility.”
      Ronaldo scored twice on his first-team debut at the age of 17 and was soon attracting the attention of Europe’s biggest clubs.
      In August 2003 his big break came — a $17 million transfer to Manchester United.

      Ronaldo

      Ronaldo’s time in Spain has been marked by his duel with Lionel Messi, who plays for Real’s great rival Barcelona, and the two men have taken football to heights that few had ever thought possible.
      Ronaldo has made himself at home in Madrid — his mother Dolores arrived to live with him and his son, Cristiano Jr.
      “The thing about Ronaldo is that he has everything,” Hargreaves said. “You look at other great players over the past 10 years like Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Zinedine Zidane, all wonderful players, but Cristiano has every single ingredient.
      “He is blessed. He can beat you in so many different ways, whether it’s by sprinting by you, beating you in the air, getting in behind you — he has it all.”

      Portugal awaits

      In Funchal and across Portugal, all hopes will be pinned on the man who last season scored 51 goals for Real and led the club to a record-extending 11th European title.
      He will have a supporting cast of young pretenders, including Bayern Munich’s new signing Renato Sanches, an 18-year-old midfielder of vast potential.
      Joao Mario of Sporting and Valencia’s Andre Gomes are both exciting midfield players, while William Carvalho has long been admired by English Premier League clubs.
      “Portugal is not a one-man team,” national coach Fernando Santos said before this month’s friendly game against England.
      But even when his talisman is not physically present, Santos still finds himself doing what he does most of the time — talking about Ronaldo.
      “He is really motivated,” Santos told reporters.
      “He was extremely motivated to win the Champions League and he is even more so now because the European title is his ambition. He is ready to take Portugal to such an important success.”
      Should Portugal succeed, then Santos may find himself having to speak about Ronaldo not just for a day — but for the rest of his life.
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      Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/06/14/football/cristiano-ronaldo-euro-2016-portugal-football/index.html

      Just give the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo Portugals Plan A (and B) | Barney Ronay

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      Cristiano Ronaldo is about to start his fourth European Championship and, after scoring 32 goals in 43 games for his country since the last one, he really is a superstar with nothing left to prove

      Should Portugal end up leaving these Euros in disappointment, as they did the last World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo can at least console himself with the idea of donning his favourite mildewed Withnail & I greatcoat, sinking a few bottles of Margaux 53 and announcing, as per Richard E Grants famous turn in a genteel Penrith tea shop, that he is going to come back in here and buy this place.

      Win the Euros? Ronaldo can afford to stage his own if he really feels like it. This may not be the best use of his reported $310m fortune but there is still an amusing symmetry in the fact Euro 2016s record 301m prize money tab could, in event of some lost-wallet Uefa emergency, be covered by the worlds highest-paid athlete.

      Portugal will play Iceland in their Group F opener in Saint-Etienne on Tuesday night. Even here there is an intriguing point of status comparison as Lars Lagerbacks volcano-nation debutants take on one of the genuine old lags of modern tournament football. Lagerback and his men arrived piled into a minibus for their pre-tournament training session. When Ronaldo played at Icelands Laugardalsvllur stadium four years ago he demanded, unsuccessfully, that half the cramped and homely changing space be set aside for his own toilette (before, it must be said, going out to win the game in the first three minutes).

      Ronaldo and Ricardo Carvalho are the only surviving members of the strong Portugal squad that reached the final of this tournament 12 years ago. Back then Luis Figo and Deco were the stars, Ronaldo still four years from his first world-player-of-the-year gong. This time Portugals captain takes the field for his fourth Uefa summer beano at the peak, if not perhaps of his playing capacities, then certainly of his star wattage, that vast multi-tiered pant-posing cult of celebrity.

      No man is bigger than the tournament but Ronaldo might just have a go. As it stands the worlds favourite oiled and burnished speedboat-lurker has 42.3m more followers on Twitter than Euro 2016, 105m more Facebook likes than Uefa and will, as ever, turn out to be the default zoom of TV producers.

      At his pre-match press conference Fernando Santos did his best to scoff at the idea this might be Ronaldos final tournament. He still has a few years ahead of him, Portugals head coach dead-batted. This is the last tournament for all of us in a positive way. We all think this can be our last opportunity because we want to win. But the fact remains that whatever happens from here the marketing arms of Uefa and Fifa need Ronaldo more than he needs another biennial summer grind.

      For all that, there is on the pitch a certain clarity about Ronaldo in France. The cards have fallen nicely. Noises off have faded out. This is a superstar player who really does have nothing left to prove. That second Champions League win with Real Madrid in May lances any pressure on his own sense of legacy and tangible triumph. Ronaldo was muted in the final but he still got his winning-penalty moment, was the competitions top gun, scored 50 goals last season and could probably burp his way from here to another Ballon dOr.

      There is mid-summer clarity then but also a wider sense of having been here and done this. Ronaldo has been accused of failing to meet his own standards at international level but this is now an unjustified snipe. Since the last Euros he has 32 goals in 43 Portugal games and has driven his country regally through a World Cup play-off billed as a mano-a-mano duel with Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

      He has six goals in three European Championships with a real chance to add a few more given another note of summer clarity. Portugal are likely to line up at this tournament with an undeniably simple Ronaldo-centred take on 4-4-2. Without a fit-for-purpose orthodox striker Ronaldo will be given all-access accreditation to play where he wants, do as he pleases, make the game up off the cuff. The tactics are simple enough. Out of possession: work hard, cover the spaces, then give it to Ronaldo. In possession: work hard, cover the spaces, then give it to Ronaldo. Portugal do, of course, have a plan B. Plan B is to give it to Ronaldo slightly quicker.

      One benefit of the free role is to stop opponents blocking Ronaldo off in the centre or planning to double-team him on the flanks. Lagerback was quick to raise an eyebrow at the suggestion Iceland might man-mark Ronaldo (I would be a little bit surprised if we chose to do it that way). But this is perhaps to do with the difficulty of doing so in a potentially unsettling roving role.

      Portugals players also have to respond to Ronaldos movement in this system, to cover the spaces a more ferrety central striker might cover and be alive also to Ronaldos muse. With this in mind they will look to be extra-solid in the centre, with Joo Moutinho and the impressive Danilo likely to start ahead of the shadow-man William Carvalho, linked to a move to the Premier League for so long he has acquired semi-mythic status, a kind of defensive midfield Keyser Sze.

      Moutinho came up only a year behind Ronaldo in the Sporting Lisbon youth levels and commented before the match on another note of clarity in the ever more pared-back Ronaldo playing persona. He has changed, Moutinho said. Hes a more objective player, hes a goalscorer now, he scores so many goals and I hope that goalscoring instinct can come up tomorrow.

      This has been his evolution, from dribbling winger, to all-round striker, to less all-round striker, a player who is more still, whose most defined task in any team is simply to be given the ball and shoot at goal, a lone, fixed, high-grade pump-action shotgun.

      There are some clouds for Portugal. Ronaldo has only just recovered from the thigh injury he suffered at the end of the club season. Ricardo Qaresma may not recover in time to share some of the creative burden. Plus Iceland are well-organised, settled opponents. Even as tournament virgins their players are well-travelled phlegmatic individuals. They attack quickly from behind a deep defensive line that was enough to beat Holland home and away in qualifying.

      Moreover in Gylfi Sigurdsson they have their own ace, scorer of six goals in that campaign. As Lagerback said, nodding at his favoured playmaker, We also have one sitting here who with his right foot has won many points for us.

      Iceland may be pitched against this tournaments greatest single star in Paris. But they are unlikely to blink in the light.

      Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/jun/14/just-give-the-ball-to-cristiano-ronaldo-portugals-plan-a-and-b

      Dear Nick Jonas, There’s A Way To Be A Straight Ally. That Wasn’t It.

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      Monday night, I attended the vigil/Stonewall Democrat-sponsored rally that sprawled the blocks surrounding the historic Stonewall Inn to process and mourn Saturday night’s massacre at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, with my NYC queer community.

      I want to first thank the organizers of this event for reading the names of every identified victim of the mass shooting at the end of our 90 minutes spent in community together. However — I am angry, as are many in my queer family — about a number of things that happened at the event which felt more like a political rally than a vigil.

      But the most sour taste I can’t seem to wash out of my mouth is the introduction of straight pop star Nick Jonas as one of the evening’s speakers (he was only one of a few straight speakers).

      For months now, Jonas has engaged in what is colloquially referred to as “queerbaiting” — marketing himself, and his sex appeal, to gay men during the lead up to the release of his new album which came out last Friday.

      For perspective, Jonas and his PR team have spent quite a bit of energy heavily marketing the pop star to gay men. Since the breakup of The Jonas Brothers, Jonas has repeatedly appeared at gay nightclubs and made headlines for exposing his body. He claimed “I can’t say if I have or haven’t” experimented sexually with other men, he’s insinuated that he has engaged in gay sex because of a role played on television, he’s been “gay and shirtless” on multiple TV shows, he’s appeared on the cover of Out Magazine alongside an extensive interview, he’s been called “The King of Twinks” by Vice and claimed he watches Mariah Carey on Home Shopping network “at least once a week.” 

      This all raises the question: Why is Jonas, a pop artist with a body heavily associated with masculinity and a body typically desired by gay men in the West pandering so heavily to the gay population?

      I don’t want to draw too many conclusions about Jonas’ and his team’s intention with this aggressive “queerbaiting.” But one thing is certain: this is not a time for straight allies to take up space — especially if you’re an ally who just dropped an album three days ago.

      Now is a time when we, as a community, are mourning the loss of 49 queer and trans brothers and sisters, many of them people of color. The media and public are largely already trying to erase the sexuality and gender identity of the victims. Seeing a straight, white man on stage addressing the mourning queer community only intensified the pain of our grief.

      Granted, organizers’ hearts were probably in the right place. They probably thought bringing a pop star on stage would increase the level of press and attention the rally received. But as much as the queer community appreciates — and needs — the support of straight allies at horrific, painful times, this was not a vigil for Jonas.

      So what can straight allies do to help the queer community as we mourn? Show your support on social media. Direct fanbases to places where they can donate and help raise money for the families of the victims — like here. Utilize the massive platform you already have to talk to the mainstream public about how this was a homophobic, transphobic and racist attack against the queer Latinx community. Educate people who don’t already understand nuances of this massacre.

      But please, straight allies, let us have our space. Let us have the grief that is specifically ours. Of course, we welcomed straight people at the vigil, but to listen, not to speak. Let us hold each other, look one another in the eyes and tell each other it’s going to be OK. Because unless you’ve ever had to internalize queer pain, there is really no way for you to know exactly how this feels, or what we need to hear.

      Donate the help the victims of the Orlando massacre below.

      Fundraising Websites – Crowdrise

      Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2016/06/13/nick-jonas-straight-ally-stonewall_n_10456710.html