Five goals for Sporting CP, over for Manchester United , a national-team record of 71 for Portugal and an astonishing haul of for Real Madrid , Ronaldo is a man with a moment of magic for every occasion.
He was at it again in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, netting a close-range header, a stunning drive and a neat finish to sink Atletico Madrid — each greeted with a different celebration. Here we chart his rise through the footballing world, as marked by his goal celebrations along the way. On more than one occasion, the Real Madrid No.
A goal in the Champions League final pictured was perhaps the most memorable example of this celebration. It was hardly a new move for Ronaldo, who stripped off his jersey after scoring his first goal as a professional player , for Sporting in Of course, there was a slight difference; not yet the toned and sculptured figure he would later become, a somewhat skinnier Ronaldo wore a vest under his jersey then rather than purposely displaying his physique to the masses.
Moving to Manchester United was, in time, like lighter fuel to Ronaldo's jet-engine potential. He enraged fans and opponents alike in his early days with needless stepovers, pointless individual skill which got him nowhere and a dreadful lack of end product as a winger—but Alex Ferguson wasn't a managerial master for no reason.
Ronaldo's boss cajoled and moulded his starlet into one of the Premier League's most devastating wide forwards after swapping him from right to left, and the goals flowed increasingly quickly. The raised arm, pointing to the stands, became a familiar sight as Ronaldo spent more time in England, though it was far from his most enigmatic celebration.
From four and five Premier League goals in his first two seasons in the north-west of England, Ronaldo hit 31 in his penultimate campaign. Perhaps symbolically, as he became more sure of his self-worth and more assured of his role in the team, his goal celebrations became correspondingly more forceful and noticeable.
Taking off with arms wide — encouraging the adulation of the fanbase — was a popular sight at Old Trafford towards the end of the forward's time at Old Trafford It's one thing to be a great player with a big price tag at one of the world's largest clubs, but quite another to live up to the billing on a weekly basis. He remembered that he tried one for Portugal that hit the bar, went in and wasn't given. Other times, he missed it entirely, or scuffed it wide. Some laughed at him for the failed attempts -- and it is true that the risk in trying it is not just physical, but feeling a bit of a fool, missing the ball and falling to the floor -- while some suggested that it was about time.
Well, yes, it was. But quite apart from the silliness and the sneering, they missed the point. It was the fact that he pursued it until it happened that maybe even makes it better. That he fell -- quite literally -- and got up and tried again and again and again. And so, to Michael Jordan again. Arbeloa reminded us of his famous quote:.
I've lost almost games. Twenty-six times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed. And in Turin, Ronaldo had got it. Maybe some will snipe that his pursuit of an overhead kick, the photo that may now come to define him more than any other, was pointless, frivolous or superfluous. In all probability, they're much the same people who jeer about him only scoring "tap-ins" and penalties.
And, anyway, they'd still be wrong. Because the work and the practice -- and "practice" is a good word, all too rarely used -- and the effort and the relentlessness with which he chased this goal is the same relentlessness with which he pursues everything and always has, from the days when he went everywhere in Madeira with weights strapped to his ankles.
And this is the point: it was not just the goal, it was everything. And if it was symbolic of Ronaldo, or if it becomes symbolic of him, it is not just because of the moment itself but because of what was behind it. Because this was not a split second's inspiration, or at least not only. Because it was not just this goal; it was all the other goals too. It is that this defines him in a way that may be deeper than it first appears.
Ronaldo made this happen, not least because Ronaldo made Ronaldo. Paul Clement, the former Madrid assistant manager, tells the story of the team arriving back from one away trip at 5 in the morning. Exhausted, all the players went home to bed. Ronaldo immediately headed to the ice bath. There are loads of stories like Clement's and no need to revive them all, but even in the hyperprofessional world of elite football, where everyone works and everyone is talented, he stands out.
Ramos knew what he said when he said the goal was "reward for hard work over so many years. It has been many years, too. Throughout them, Ronaldo has changed. And, thinking about it, that's the other thing that the goal might have symbolised.
Next week is the 30th anniversary of Hugo Sanchez's famous overhead kick against Logrones, his most emblematic goal, the one that came to define him. Sanchez was arguably the best striker that Madrid have ever had, until now.
With this goal, it was tempting to wonder, is Ronaldo's evolution into some kind of supercharged, 21st-century uber-Hugo Sanchez now complete? Or, as a quick aside, how about this? In Marca this week, there was a mention of Ferenc Puskas, the man with "two careers," the genius in his early days who joined Madrid later in life, by which time he was defined as a relentless, implacable goal scorer. Reading it, it was easy for the mind to drift to Ronaldo. Puskas, by the way, had a goalpost in the garden, with different-sized rings hanging from the crossbar at different heights.
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