- Author, Marcus Alves
- Role, BBC Sport
It was already past midnight, but hundreds of fans gathered outside the Frankfurt Arena, hoping to get one last glimpse of their hero before heading home.
Ultimately, the wait was worth it as Cristiano Ronaldo smiled and waved to them while leaving the stadium on the national team bus.
That was the end of a day that, regardless of whatever happens on Friday when Portugal take on France in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals, will forever be remembered.
Ronaldo had already cried on different occasions with the Selecao, but never ever had he burst into tears the way he did on Monday after having a penalty saved in extra time during a dramatic last-16 match against Slovenia.
There was, after all, still a game to be won – which they eventually did on penalties as goalkeeper Diogo Costa shone following a 0-0 draw.
This was different from anything else in his illustrious career.
At 39, it looked like the one opponent he had been trying so hard to outrun had finally caught up with him – time.
Having been Portugal’s main star for the past two decades, lifting trophies and managing to change the perception around a team previously known back home for its losing mentality, Ronaldo has yet to find the net in this tournament.
Despite that, according to a poll from Mais Futebol website, he can still rely on the support from his compatriots – 54% of them want him to start in Friday’s quarter-final versus France.
Not even his meltdown in Frankfurt has affected their confidence.
“If there’s something to take from this, it’s the deep humanity of the moment. There’s an authenticity of a street boy in Ronaldo,” Henrique Raposo, a columnist for Expresso newspaper, said.
“If you follow his career, you know that he has always cried from joy or frustration not fearing the exposure, something that makes him such an unparalleled mediatic star.”
Bernardo Ribeiro, a director of Record newspaper, added: “I don’t know what made Ronaldo cry – whether it was seeing his mother crying, failing his country or failing himself.
“Whatever the reason, they’re all understandable because even the most selfish one of them shows us what we’ve known for many years. For better or for worse, he’s a competitive animal.”
Regardless of the local sympathy for his tears right now, there’s a feeling, however, that such mentality isn’t helping the team any longer as it once did.
‘His mental side is being exposed’
Ronaldo’s performance against Slovenia certainly did no good to his cause as he reached 20 shots at goal, the most of any player at the competition, but still failed to score after appearing in every single game so far.
Taking a free-kick from wide on the left wing only contributed to the impression that he was running his own sideshow in an attempt to become the oldest goalscorer and the first player to score in six different editions of the Euros.
“Six, seven years ago, Ronaldo would have easily bagged a hat-trick in this game. But he doesn’t have any more the same jumping capacity, the explosion, the balance to shoot at speed and the dribble. So all these situations are exposing his mental side in moments of frustration,” Luis Cristovao, a pundit for SIC Noticias, argued.
“This is the first time he’s playing at a major competition coming from a way lower competitive context [Saudi Arabia] compared to the one he’s facing in Germany.”
Having been in charge for 18 months – or 20 games – now, coach Roberto Martinez has also been criticised for how he has handled the situation.
“He needs to stop behaving as a diplomat with rainbow in his eyes”, Tomas da Cunha, a pundit for DAZN, TSF Radio and No Principio Era A Bola podcast, said.
“Ronaldo has started all games and the team obviously look for him in the finishing zone, but he’s not the same physically and you can also see that, if he can’t make a difference, it affects him psychologically.
“It would be the coach’s job to play other players. Where else would you see a 39-year-old playing four games in two weeks during a competition in July? Or 120 minutes in a round of 16 match? Nowhere else.”
‘Association of Support to Cristiano Ronaldo’
Such is the mood in Portugal before the game against France that the team has been dubbed ‘Association of Support to Cristiano Ronaldo’ by the A Bola newspaper.
Dropping the Al-Nassr striker would undoubtedly require a lot of diplomacy by Martinez, considering what happened the last time a coach decided to bench the team captain.
It took place in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with then boss Fernando Santos replacing Ronaldo with Goncalo Ramos, who responded by scoring a hat-trick against Switzerland in the 6-1 victory in the last 16. Ramos kept his place for the quarters against Morocco but Portugal ended up losing 1-0.
That was the end, however, of the relationship between Santos and Ronaldo.
“We haven’t talked since Qatar,” Santos admitted to A Bola in November last year. “I had a very strong relationship with Ronaldo, a personal one, beyond professional.
“We met at Sporting when he was 19 and only strengthened it after that. It was a bit like a father-and-son relationship. But I had to make a decision and, when I came to explain it to him, he didn’t take it very well. Anyway, he knows I’m here.”
Will Martinez be willing to go through the same situation?