Cristiano Ronaldo’s petulance reached new heights during Portugal’s Euro 2024 last 16 clash with Slovenia. The 39-year-old was in tears after missing a penalty in extra-time, having previously squandered several good chances, not including the free-kicks sent over the bar with remarkable consistency.
Perhaps finally reaching some kind of self-awareness, perhaps recognising his own mortality, the fallibility of his human body, Ronaldo seemed unable to accept that he had had a bad game on the biggest stage. And so the tears flowed and the cameras followed.
He did eventually score a well-taken penalty in the shootout that sent Portugal through to the quarter-finals, acknowledging the crowd with what appeared to be an apology straight after. Even if the evening might have deflated his ego slightly, former Liverpool and Germany midfielder Didi Hamann was not impressed by Ronaldo.
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"Thirty-nine-year-old plays 120 minutes, he misses a penalty and I’ve got to say, I bought into all that 'Ronaldo has turned into a team player because he needs the team more than he used to'. I bought into that nonsense as well, but I think he showed his true colours again tonight," Hamann said.
"Missing the penalty, he starts crying on the pitch, he starts crying at half-time in extra-time. And I’m thinking 'it’s all about you'. There’s a squad of 26 players, there’s 20 staff, there’s 30 or 40,000 fans in there, it’s not about you.
"You try to be mutual, but I was cheering Slovenia on because I thought the reaction was embarrassing, I thought it was out of order. I’ve never seen anything like it, because once you show emotions, once you get emotional, it’s the end of it.
"So that was the point where the manager had to say, 'you’ve got to come off because you’re not in the right frame of mind to carry on playing'. Credit to him he took the first penalty and he took it well, it was a very good penalty, but as I said I bought into all that 'Ronaldo’s turned into a team player', it’s absolute nonsense.
"All he thinks about is himself. He scores the penalty and apologises to the fans, he doesn’t need to apologise. He will start the next game but I can’t see any other outcome than a France win."
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