Real Madrid and Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo is too in love with himself and puts his performances above his team, according to former AC Milan and Croatia player Zvonimir Boban.
The former football, who now writes a football column in Sportske Novosti among other activities, said Ronaldo’s goal celebration in the Champions League win over Atletico showed just how much he puts himself above his team.
And he added Ronaldo’s vanity proved detrimental to the Portugal side in the World Cup as other players do not respond to him but rather play as individuals.
Ronaldo, the current Ballon d’Or holder scored 51 goals for his club last season as Los Blancos won the Copa del Rey and Champions League. He scored the fourth goal in the final against Atletico in Lisbon. But the 29-year-old couldn’t help Portugal crashing out at the group stage in Brazil despite scored a goal against Ghana and providing three assists.
Writing in his column, Boban said: “Ronaldo is an amazing player and he showed that again in Brazil, even if he missed a number of chances.
“He scored the 4-1 in the 120th minute of the Champions League final and celebrated like he was insane. That was the ultimate proof that he loves himself. The headlines should be about the team, not about Ronaldo.
“The same thing happened with Portugal in Brazil. There was no order or discipline. All the Portugal players were playing their own game and more occupied with their hair and tattoos. It’s Hollywood behaviour.”
Ronaldo’s heroics brought Portugal to the World Cup in the first place, and he answered his country’s call even though he was injured. Blaming him shows more bias than analysis of the facts. Portugal’s poor performance is down to incompetent management and financially motivated planning. Bento’s starting lineups were identical to those in EURO 2012. Instead of bringing appropriate cover for Fabio Coentrao at leftback (Antunes), Bento was using inexperienced midfielder, Andre Almeida. Bento brought many out-of-form or injured players: Coentrao, Almeida, Postiga, Vieririnha, Rafa, and Nani, and did not bring of in-form, and highly-rated Quaresma, Danny, Nelson Oliveira, and Bebe. Worst of all was the midfield: Meireles & Veloso were never particularly great players and now they are over-the-hill, but Bento only used William Carvalho, one of the best and most promising CDM’s in the world, as substitute when Portugal desperately needed height, strength, and youth in midfield. Portugal were the last team to arrive in Brazil because they had a preparation game only a WEEK before in the U.S.A. and their training sessions were open to the public! The Portuguese Federation were more interested in financial profit than they were with a successful tournament. If they were, they would already be imposing a quota of Portuguese players in their league: Benfica has NO Portuguese starters. Porto only has a few. Instead, the Portuguese League is where players from Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, and many others, are honing their skills, while Portuguese players are ignored. These are the factual short and long term problems with Portugal…but blame Ronaldo’s hairstyle. That makes sense.
Excellent analysis of the problems in Portuguese football, Adam. Boban joins a list of many experts and pundits taking cheap shots at Ronaldo. CR7 is a genius!
Boban je kreten …..
It’s much easier to blame a TEAM’S loss on Ronaldo’s hairstyle than it is to do actual analysis. This Croatian idiot conveniently forgot to mention that Ronaldo was playing with patella tendonisis and a hamstring injury that still hasn’t fully healed (according to Real Madrid themselves). Tendonisis, not to be confused with tendonitis, is a painful injury that causes stress fractures in the knee. Ronaldo played in this world cup despite the alleged protest of his TEAM DOCTOR TO NOT PLAY lest he risk his CAREER. This courageous leadership indicates a man who is more concerned about representing his country in the biggest tournament of all DESPITE the fact that playing with such an injury could jeopardize his career. If Ronaldo was truly a selfish player, one who puts himself before the team, then why would he play with such a serious knee injury? Why risk your multi-million dollar Real Madrid contract and endorsements for a few games in Brazil? But no, that doesn’t get mentioned. To this Croatian fool Ronaldo is Mr. me, me me, even though he set his teammates up consistently, averaging 2.2 key passes per game in the WC, more than one of Europe’s best playmakers Iniesta and more than anybody on Belgium (despite playing with less talent). Facts are hard; opinions are easy.
They idiot who wrote the article also forgot to mention that Ronaldo scored 7 goals and 2 assists in Portugal’s last 4 qualifying games to get to the WC including TWO hat-tricks to CARRY portugal into the WC. The idiot makes no mention that Ronaldo missed most of April and May with said knee injury even as he played in the UCL final and was the player who won the ball back that ultimately led to Bale’s GW goal (go look at the replays). I believe he can be forgiven for taking off his shirt in the capital of his home country playing against Madrid’d biggest rival on the biggest stage in football. Paulo Bento is the man to blame for Portugal’s collapse: Was Ronaldo the one that got Pepe sent off (ruining their chances of going through on goal difference)? Was’nt Ronaldo the one with the tournament-saving cross to Varela? Wasn’t Ronaldo Portugal’s SOLE offensive threat (where was nani, moutinho, and eder)? Wasn’t Ronaldo the one who scored the game-winning goal against Ghana? Was Ronaldo the one who brought Almedia, Postiga, Nani, Veloso, Bruno Alves, Eder and Meiereles to Brazil? 8 washed up players who would not start for Argentina, Belgium, Holland (or even Ghana for goodness sakes).
But blame it on Ronaldo’s hair…That makes LOTS of sense, don’t bother doing any analytical thinking, just blame one man…the man who single-handedly got them there in the first place.
Facts are hard; opinions are easy.
No need to go insulting me for writing the article dude. I was just reporting what Boban said. Not the place for me to give my opinion. If you want that – check out the Collins Column. This is a Real Madrid news website for Real Madrid fans. We’re pretty pro-anything Real Madrid.
I think this is just a bias article. Whoever wrote this just wanted to bash on Cristiano Ronaldo. No offense, I’m not interested in futbol or even know him that well, but I’m pretty sure Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t the only one to blame for the team losing.
The quotes are from Boban, not me. He’s the one bashing Ronaldo. I’m only reporting what he said.
Fuck Boban
I think that man only wanted to attack Ronaldo. Its really simple to blame someone for loss but in fact the Portugal bad results in world cup depends on all the players which played awfully and also the coach.Every body knows that Ronaldo was suffering from injury at that time.This is too cruel to talk about the best player of2013 like that!!!all the Real Madrid fans love him because he is one of the best Real Madrid players