RM19mil a week can’t heal Ronaldo’s wounds

 

RM19 million per week is nice work if you can get it.

Especially when past your prime.

No matter how it’s calculated – RM113,000 and some change is the hourly rate – it takes the anxiety out of ever-rising living costs.

Cristiano Ronaldo can count himself lucky as he’s been making a few missteps of late.

Showing his age – 38 next month.

Upsetting his ‘family’ in Manchester, his compatriots at the World Cup and not even doing what he did best – scoring goals.

And when he was unveiled at his new home, he forgot where he was.

“South Africa” doesn’t have that sort of money in football. But it was that country’s name that he used when unveiled in Saudi Arabia this week.

Perhaps it was because he’d found a gold mine.

But let’s not make too much of it – very forgivable when he’d been offered jobs by so many countries.

“I had many opportunities in Europe, in Brazil, in Australia, in the US, even in Portugal many tried to sign me,” he claimed, albeit none in Africa.

Presidents and kings have been similarly confused on state visits.

“In Europe, my work is done,” he said in his most messianic tone. “I’m a unique player. I beat all the records there. I want to beat a few records here.”

But then in a very un-Messianic tone, he added: “I don’t worry about what people say. I am really, really happy to be here.”

You don’t have to be a psycho-analyst to wonder if he’s ‘really, really’ overjoyed to be spending the next two and a half years in the kingdom.

Work in Europe finished? Not long ago he said he had “unfinished business” there.

Specifically, putting his Champions League scoring record beyond the grasping feet of Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe.

You wonder if, deep down, he might regret swapping one of the cathedrals of football for a relative backwater.

The money would turn anyone’s head.

It dwarfs even the salaries of Lionel Messi, making ends meet on RM3 million plus, and Haaland, scraping by on RM2 million a week.

It obviously turned CR7s head full-circle – to the extent that he called time on one of the great careers in football history.

And is one of many reasons why sympathy is in short supply. If we can set aside the money, we have to ask: is that the best he could do?

From setting a scoring record in the greatest club tournament, from Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus to… Al Nassr.

The club’s last home crowd before the World Cup was under 13,000.

It’s a precipitous fall by any standards and one he didn’t have to make. Amazing what money can do.

What he didn’t say about the other offers he received was how big they were.

No one is disputing that many clubs looked at hiring him after he burned his bridges at Old Trafford.

But all the well-documented damage he’s done in the last few months has been self-inflicted. And it’s a litany of sins, some of them cardinal.

If he ever wonders where it all went wrong, he might realise that his antics not only tarnished his legacy, but slashed his value.

Both his price and wages.

After all, who would want a player who undermines his own manager? One who, after being subbed, leaves the ground before the game has finished?

One who sulks and pouts, while the only pressing he does is for a transfer out?

And whose most successful link-up was with a TV presenter who obliged with the interview that took him beyond the point of no return.

Some clubs are willing to take a risk on a player with baggage if he comes relatively cheaply.

But in this regard, Ronaldo snookered himself: no one would do that and pay a salary bigger than half the team’s.

Chelsea might have gone for him but then manager Thomas Tuchel blocked it. By the time Tuchel had left, the owners had wised up.

His fading ability combined with his ego and high salary made for a package that was almost toxic.

Indeed, you wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of Al Nassr boss Rudi Garcia because you know who will be the biggest noise in the dressing room.

It’s sad it’s come to this.

If only. If only he’d not allowed his heart to rule his head, he could have banged in the goals for Manchester City last season.

City’s passing carousel would have put them on a plate for him.

And he might have even won another Champions League medal – and broken City’s duck.

He might have even done it for Chelsea or Bayern, if his ego and salary demands were not so outrageous.

Even though he’s not the player he was, he could do better than the Saudi League.

He could still have been at United had he accepted that he’s now no more than an impact player.

But that wasn’t good enough for CR7. He had his Instagram followers to think about.

And it’s telling that he can’t make his debut because he’s suspended after breaking a young Everton fan’s phone in a tantrum earlier in the season.

Meanwhile, Messi, his greatest rival, basks in the adulation of winning the World Cup.

The Argentine is also a convincing victor in their personal battle for who is best.

United, breathing the non-toxic air of a Ronaldo-free zone, are strong contenders for a place in the Champions League next season.

Yes, it is sad, but it’s all his own doing.

He was indisputably a great player and will be remembered as one of the best of all time – but not especially fondly.

It’s almost Shakespearean that for a man who puts image before everything, his image has been damaged beyond repair – by his own ego and greed. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.