\n\n\n\n\n

In case you missed it, here\u2019s a snapshot of Ronaldo\u2019s international break. Remember, all he actually did was score one goal from close range and yet he still managed to be the star of the show for four days in a row.\n

Thursday: Portugal lose 1-0 against Denmark in the first leg in Copenhagen but, as well as manager Roberto Martinez, Ronaldo is the centre of the fallout back home for his miserable performance of only two shots off target.\n

Friday: Pretty much any story about the match focuses on\u00a0Rasmus Hojlund\u2019s copycat \u2018siuuu\u2019 celebration.\n

Saturday: Ronaldo gives a press conference in which he takes aim at the Portuguese press, including at one journalist in particular who makes the mistake of looking at his laptop (presumably, you know, to type what Ronaldo is saying) instead of directly into his eyes.\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve watched some press conferences in the last few days and I didn\u2019t like what I saw,\u201d Ronaldo, clearly with a bit too much time on his hands in the team hotel, says.\n
\u201cWhen someone asks a question I want you to look me in the eyes, not down at your computer, you have time to look at your computer afterwards.\n
\u201cLook at me when you talk and speak the truth. If I have to say this 10 times, I\u2019ll say it 10 times.We are prepared for tomorrow, not to play how we did a few days ago.\u201d\n
Sunday: Ronaldo wins a penalty in the third minute and takes it himself, producing what might be the worst spot kick of his career when he stutters, stops and telegraphs a soft, low penalty which Kasper Schmeichel saves.\n
For much of the match it feels like Ronaldo versus Schmeichel, with the keeper making three saves from the Portugal striker, while the pair (with a combined aged of 78) also squabble over the ball like teenagers when trying to retrieve it out the net after Portugal\u2019s opening goal.\n
\n
\n
$\"\"$ \n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n
Ronaldo eventually scores Portugal\u2019s second on the night, after a Fernandes shot cannons off the post and rebounds off Schmeichel, leading to a tidy finish from a tight angle.\n
And then he is surprisingly subbed off in the 92nd minute, grimacing and perhaps injured as he leaves the field, before basically managing the team at full-time and then during extra time, cajoling team mates and whipping up the crowd while the camera incessantly pans to him. After extra time is done he spends more time chatting to Denmark boss Brian Riemer than Martinez, in a manner Jason Tindall would be proud of.\n
You\u2019ll probably either find the above infuriating in a \u2018he always has to make it all about him\u2019 kind of way, or absolutely hilarious in a \u2018dramatic diva who always creates drama\u2019 manner.\n
But whether you think it\u2019s time for Portugal to move on without the Al Nassr player is a moot point. He\u2019s going nowhere.\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\n
A far more pertinent (albeit still not much more realistic) question is whether Portugal should\u00a0start\u00a0to move on without him. You know, maybe bring him off the bench once in a while, or don\u2019t have him playing the full 90 minutes.\n
Martinez clearly doesn\u2019t think so. You may remember him only subbing Ronaldo off once during Euro 2024 (in a dead rubber against Georgia) despite not scoring during the tournament and generally looking like a 39-year-old who could no longer run, jump or head the ball to anywhere near the incredibly high standards he had previously set.\n
\n
\n
$\"\"$ \n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\n\n
And yet Ronaldo scored five goals in six Nations League group games in the autumn. He remains, at his sharpest and when provided with good service, a fantastic and prolific goalscorer (15 goals in 15 Euros qualifiers and Nations League group games combined), certainly against limited opponents.\n
It\u2019s just that there is a predictable story on the horizon; get to the World Cup, play every minute, fail to impress (he has scored one goal, a penalty, in 10 appearances in the last Euros and World Cup combined).\n
Any annoyance back in Portugal isn\u2019t at Ronaldo playing, it\u2019s at how much he plays, and a perception that is Martinez is afraid or unable to drop him and even reluctant to substitute him.\n
When Martinez also has Rafael Leao (although he again failed to shine in a Portugal shirt here), Conceicao, Trincao, Ramos and Jota, not to mention Joao Felix on the bench, Pedro Neto who was sent back to Chelsea after the first leg, consistent domestic performers like Pedro Goncalves, or future Chelsea player Geovany Quenda coming through, backed up by the brilliant Fernandes and Joao Neves and Vitinha in midfield, there is no shortage of dazzling options.\n
But as we saw at a disappointing Euros, or in Copenhagen last week, or for 86 minutes in Lisbon before the impressive Danes finally started to creak, there is a worry Portugal are\u00a0full of stars but aren\u2019t a functional team.\n
\n
\n
\n
\n\n\n\n
Martinez isn\u2019t near his Belgium farewell point yet, but had Portugal not squeaked through in extra time here the murmurings about his suitability for the job would have grown to a more audible level of discontent.\n
\u201cI have a lot of experience, I\u2019m calm,\u201d he said on Sunday. \u201cWhen the team loses, it\u2019s my fault, when it wins, it\u2019s the players.\u201d\n
Will he make it to the World Cup? Probably. Will Ronaldo? It\u2019s not even a question worth asking.\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You wonder what life with Portuguese football will be like when Cristiano Ronaldo finally exits stage left. Perhaps it\u2019ll be like Dallas when Bobby Ewing died. The show was panned … \n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9718,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9715\/revisions\/9718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}