Ronaldo on the bench

Rob Smyth 

Fernando Santos wasn’t joking: he’s dropped Cristiano Ronaldo, apparently in response to Ronaldo effing and jeffing when he was taken off against South Korea. Either that or he has used Ronaldo’s outburst as an excuse to drop a player who is sadly past it.

Dead rubbers aside, the last time Cristiano Ronaldo was left out of the Portugal side at a major tournament was when they beat Russia in the group stage of Euro 2004 – that’s 6,747 days ago.

It’s worth repeating: Goncalo Ramos is 21 years old, in place of Cristiano Ronaldo, starting his first game in international football, in place of Cristiano Ronaldo, in a World Cup knockout game, in place of Cristiano Ronaldo, for a team who haven’t won a World Cup knockout game in 16 years.

The camera cuts to Ronaldo on the bench. He’s impassive, hand on his chin, or should be it chin on his hand. Either way, I’d pay top dollar for that internal monologue.

“Switzerland must be gutted with Ronaldo’s behaviour,” says Brendan Large. “If he’d only behaved like a grown up after being subbed in the last game, they would surely be doing better in this game.”

I still can’t quite believe how much he has declined in the last few months.

“Perhaps Ronaldo’s decline started with the loss of his son (and hospitalisation of his daughter),” says Ellen Bohan, “which he didn’t have a lot of time to recover from - not that you ever fully recover from that.”

Good point. There have signs of physical decline too but goodness knows what that does to even somebody as mentally tough as Ronaldo. It’s one of the main reasons why I’m a bit uneasy with all the schadenfreude.

“Having spent over ten years living in Portugal, I’d caution against imagining that Ronaldo is entirely adored there,” says Geoff Wignall. “For sure he has plenty of fans but it’s by no means universal (not that you’d know it from the Portuguese media). It is after all a country and populace often characterized by a quiet modesty.

“Even at the time of the Euros victory in 2016, there were many who saw his injury and substitution in the final as timely and significant for the outcome. That wasn’t just hindsight either: I was watching in a local bar where the immediate reaction from some was very much along ‘now we can be a team’ lines. Just saying.”

“It’s silly to belittle Ronaldo’s career as he clearly is one of the all time greats,” says Espen Bommen, “but it’s interesting that Portugal’s biggest success, the Euro win, and their best game, because I think today qualifies as that, has come without him on the pitch.”

I’d say that’s just coincidence, as he got them to the final of Euro 2016. This is different though – the team just looks better without him. He could still have an impact on this tournament from the bench, though, a 124th-minute winner against England in the semi-finals maybe.