The comprehensive Ronaldo thread

Mickeza

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I’ve done the annoyance phase when he was clearly a detriment to the team, I’ve done the anger phase with that ridiculous interview and now I just find it really sad. He’s struggling to come to terms with the fact his body can no longer deliver for him. Looks proper emotional walking off at the end there - being the best is all he’s ever known for nearly two decades.
 

Jericho

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Even when he doesn't play he gets more attention from you lot and countless others on social media than anyone else. The obsession has reached disturbing levels of weird and unhealthy, and that's coming from someone who can't stand the man and is delighted to see him leave United
He’s one of the most famous people in the world, was one of the best to ever play the game, twice signed for United, a massively divisive figure, a recent dramatic exit from the club, and currently playing at the World Cup. And you’re “disturbed” by some people posting about him…
 

BorisManUtd

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Even when he doesn't play he gets more attention from you lot and countless others on social media than anyone else. The obsession has reached disturbing levels of weird and unhealthy, and that's coming from someone who can't stand the man and is delighted to see him leave United
It's petty I know but the whole saga with United ended 2 weeks ago, it's still fresh in people's minds.

One reason we should have sympathy for Cristiano is the fact that his baby died this year and that would be difficult for anyone of course. He'd act this way even if that didn't happen but it did so I'll certainly try to be rational on this subject because of that though I'll admit I haven't been so far, I've been petty and wanted him to fail.
 

CallyRed

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But he'd be happy for the team if they won the trophy without him playing.
Or something.
 

GifLord

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Even when he doesn't play he gets more attention from you lot and countless others on social media than anyone else. The obsession has reached disturbing levels of weird and unhealthy, and that's coming from someone who can't stand the man and is delighted to see him leave United
You should have seen the Fox coverage. Prematch and post match all about Ronaldo instead of talking about the hat trick hero they talked about Ronaldo still having the goods to perform.
 

Chumpsbechumps

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I’m just glad this circus was dealt with before the World Cup. Ten Haag can hopefully get all the gutter journos questions on Ronaldo out of the way in the league cup and hopefully they will get bored or just move on to their next angle and we can put this clown story to bed.
 

Rolaholic

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Contrasting the genuine joy and team spirit that Messi plays with and showcases as his supporting cast come into their own this tourney with the other one forcing himself to smile for the cameras and switching the act off and not even waiting to rush to the dressing room alone as his teammates celebrate as soon as the cameras are off is the clearest summary of who they are as players and people.

The way Argentina's players talk about him you'd fully expect them try to take a bullet for Messi if it came down to it while the Portugeuse players are much more cautious and careful with their words about Ronaldo betraying a sense of fear that exists there...

No wonder it's showcased so dramatically on the pitch just how much more they enjoy their football when he's on the bench
 

Chairman Steve

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Whilst he is obviously a shadow of himself, I still have this feeling he’s going to pull out a magic moment somewhere, like Morocco frustrating Portugal, then he comes off the bench and scores some towering header in the 92nd minute like only he can/could have, and Portugal win and progress.
 
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Actually feel sorry for him in those videos, we all suspected it after the Piers interview but he appears in a very bad place mentally. His ego can’t accept that he’s a shadow of his former self & he looks to be having a full on mental breakdown.
Wouldn’t surprise me to hear he’s spent many a night balling his eyes out over the past few months.
 

Devil81

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I think his teammates must secretly hate his guts. All this respect bollocks is just rubbish.
 

cyberman

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I think his teammates must secretly hate his guts. All this respect bollocks is just rubbish.
Of course they do. If he starts the next game and go out it’ll be a massive what if after that performance tonight
 

Gazza

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It’s like he’s got the ultimate mindset for individual sport, but he’s stuck in a team sport.
LeBron James said that he sometimes wishes he was a tennis player or golfer. I think a lot of the greats in team sports have probably felt that way at some point; I do think that way of thinking has become more prevalent in the social media, where each player is their own brand and very much out to max their stack.
 

Chief123

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Can we put a little bit of respect on Ronaldo’s name please.

I’ve never seen anyone in the history of football smash a free kick into the wall so consistently yet making the world believe something special is about to happen every time. It really is an incredible achievement.
 

TheGame

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"I don't respect OT1214. They say good things about Ten Hag but not about Ronaldo. Ronaldo won game today. Put Ronaldo poo in Ramos' boots. Ramos use poop boots to score. Goals belong to Ronaldo, will report this to FIFA and I know they will see the truth."

Three weeks later. "I don't respect FIFA..."
“I shit in Ramos handbag”
 

cyberman

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Actually feel sorry for him in those videos, we all suspected it after the Piers interview but he appears in a very bad place mentally. His ego can’t accept that he’s a shadow of his former self & he looks to be having a full on mental breakdown.
Wouldn’t surprise me to hear he’s spent many a night balling his eyes out over the past few months.
He’s been a shadow of himself for a long time now. It just can’t be that. It’s too convenient of an excuse.
He just seems like a dick.
 

Pogue Mahone

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I’ve done the annoyance phase when he was clearly a detriment to the team, I’ve done the anger phase with that ridiculous interview and now I just find it really sad. He’s struggling to come to terms with the fact his body can no longer deliver for him. Looks proper emotional walking off at the end there - being the best is all he’s ever known for nearly two decades.
A few months ago I was absolutely ready to empathise with how hard it must be for him to deal with the end of a remarkable career. I mean, he’s going through an undeniably tough time.

But after seeing him hanging out with Jordan Peterson and yukking it up with Piers fecking Morgan about how much money he has in his bank account I’m all out of sympathy. He’s a knob. A very wealthy knob. I have zero sympathy for him. Feck him.
 

RedDevil@84

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Think the penny has dropped and he realizes he is no longer immortal.
Naa. He is probably blaming United's betrayal and our disrespect of him that has caused him so much mental trauma that he is unable to play for Portugal.
 

Mickeza

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A few months ago I was absolutely ready to empathise with how hard it must be for him to deal with the end of a remarkable career. I mean, he’s going through an undeniably tough time.

But after seeing him hanging out with Jordan Peterson and yukking it up with Piers fecking Morgan about how much money he has in his bank account I’m all out of sympathy. He’s a knob. A very wealthy knob. I have zero sympathy for him. Feck him.
Oh he’s totally a knob. And the Jordan Peterson shit is infuriating and just confirms what a bellend he is. It’s still sad watching him walk off that pitch so emotional - as if it’s finally dawned on him that he’ll never be what he once was.
 

marktan

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I think his teammates must secretly hate his guts. All this respect bollocks is just rubbish.
Why would they? Most of their team is young, they would've seen Ronaldo in his prime carrying Portugal for the last 15 years. The argentinian players adore Messi, the Brazillians with Neymar, it's hard not to see the Portugese be the same.

They probably see he deserves to be on the bench, now that he is on the bench I can't see where any animosity would come from.
 

shamans

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LeBron James said that he sometimes wishes he was a tennis player or golfer. I think a lot of the greats in team sports have probably felt that way at some point; I do think that way of thinking has become more prevalent in the social media, where each player is their own brand and very much out to max their stack.
Maybe a topic for a separate thread but there are individual heroics in football and it has happened. It's not always the case but we've all seen Maradona, Zidane, Ronaldinho and of course Ronaldo at his peak just completely change the game. You could even say Van Persie during the title winning season -- many games he truly was the difference.
 

Joel Miller

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Why would they? Most of their team is young, they would've seen Ronaldo in his prime carrying Portugal for the last 15 years. The argentinian players adore Messi, the Brazillians with Neymar, it's hard not to see the Portugese be the same.

They probably see he deserves to be on the bench, now that he is on the bench I can't see where any animosity would come from.
Carrying Portugal haha.
 

Fluctuation0161

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Oh he’s totally a knob. And the Jordan Peterson shit is infuriating and just confirms what a bellend he is. It’s still sad watching him walk off that pitch so emotional - as if it’s finally dawned on him that he’ll never be what he once was.
You assume it dawns on him. I suspect he is blaming the manager for not picking him (again) and thinks he would've scored a hat trick of he started.

He may come to realise in the coming months though. That will be a harder watch.
 

BlueHaze

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He's actually that type of person who was hoping they would lose just because they bench him so he could go on and say oh look, you did not play me now you deserve losing.

He was fuming when they were 4-1 up. He looked like he wanted to kill someone.

He couldn't stand it.
 

TheGame

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A few months ago I was absolutely ready to empathise with how hard it must be for him to deal with the end of a remarkable career. I mean, he’s going through an undeniably tough time.

But after seeing him hanging out with Jordan Peterson and yukking it up with Piers fecking Morgan about how much money he has in his bank account I’m all out of sympathy. He’s a knob. A very wealthy knob. I have zero sympathy for him. Feck him.
Kind of how I feel.
 

Rhyme Animal

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Nonchalantly scoring the winner...
Oh he’s totally a knob. And the Jordan Peterson shit is infuriating and just confirms what a bellend he is. It’s still sad watching him walk off that pitch so emotional - as if it’s finally dawned on him that he’ll never be what he once was.
Agree. He’s a complete wanker. The Peterson and Morgan factors are very disappointing.

BUT… I do think think his odd behaviour since losing his baby has ramped up. I think he’s understandably hurting and probably not emotionally equipped to deal with that trauma coupled with his career winding down.

Also it wouldn’t be the first (or last) time that emotionally damaged people get sucked into the right wing media train…

Hurt people WATCH it, and lap it up, and I guess hurt celebrities get swept into it.
 
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TheGame

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Oh he’s totally a knob. And the Jordan Peterson shit is infuriating and just confirms what a bellend he is. It’s still sad watching him walk off that pitch so emotional - as if it’s finally dawned on him that he’ll never be what he once was.
I don’t know if it has dawned on him though. If it had, he would have celebrated with his team mates. Looks like he was throwing a strop and taking the attention away from the team on him.
 

Jeppers7

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It's great that Ronaldo scored 42 goals in a season and it's great you keep mentioning it but it's not relevant to this discussion because;

1) a goal alone doesn't equal a memorable or standout/important moment.
2) Ronaldo was the main attacking outlet for the team during that season, Cantona was a second striker. Goals weren't the only thing he did, as shown by him being top assister in the league twice. Comparison of goals scored is useless. Which is good because this was about player impact for the entire team.

You're right that Ronaldo scored a shit load of goals during our League and CL season, the CL being the one thing Ronaldo has over Cantona from a team perspective (since I as a United fan am looking for United moments and not how many Balloon Doors a player has to their name). Being a better player also doesn't mean they provided better moments. They're two completely different identifiers. Pure moments are subjective and depend on how much you actually saw both play. But since you're focused on numbers let's start with those...

Worth pointing out that Ronaldo has three league titles, Cantona four, and Ronaldo has one FA Cup, Cantona two.

Cantona also scored more match winners than Ronaldo. 16 match winning goals for United compared to 13 for Ronnie. A reminder again that Cantona was a second striker and played less seasons than Ronaldo.

Even ignoring anecdotal opinions and memories from people who actually saw both of them perform and sticking to the raw numbers doesn't do much for Ronaldo at United.

But the CL, the club honour Ronaldo has that Cantona doesn't. I remember it well. I remember his great header in the first half, and a couple of crosses before he became invisible for the rest of the game - barely got into the box and jogged around. Then he bottled his penalty. If Terry hadn't slipped we would have lost that game. Van Der Sar won Man of the Match.

To say Ronaldo was more talismanic than Cantona is just bizarre.
I looked at three seasons for Ronaldo and got to 19 winning goals, unless for some bizarre reason you’re eliminating games we won 2-0 and Ronaldo got both?

Do you really want to get into criticism of CL performances? Really?

Worth pointing out that Ronaldo won 8 trophies at United to Eric’s 6, whilst joining as a teenager and Eric joined at his peak, 3 league titles in a row, an FA Cup, two league cups, athe club World Cup and the CL while Eric was bottling group stage games and proving why he wasn’t getting picked for France.

A reminder that Cantona joined as a 26/27 year old and played a season less, and that Ronaldo played on the RW, not sure what point you’re trying to make on saying Cantona was a second striker. He played up front with Hughes or McClair. You’re reaching trying to claim a right winger should score more than a centre forward.

Over their United careers Ronaldo scored more goals, had a better goals per game ratio, played more games (which seems important to some) and won more trophies. He was also voted the worlds best player. A feat only the holy trinity have managed besides. But I’m sure we’re not bothered that Best, Law and Charlton won that. He did more for United on a global scale and was a far better player than Cantona.

Any disputing of that is frankly bizarre, except on a United forum that seemingly judges players on how much they like them rather than on ability.