Euro 2016: Tears and sympathy turn to triumph for Ronaldo

Ronaldo went from captain to cheerleader on Portugal’s greatest night. But, by the end, there were tears of joy.

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo holds the trophy after winning the Euro 2016 final. Picture: AP

When the moment came, he was up on his feet in celebration on the touchline, looking to the heavens, his face contorted in what looked like ecstasy. This was a moment of catharsis for Cristiano Ronaldo - not the way he would have imagined his part in the greatest night in the history of the Portugal national team, but by the end of an emotional evening, he had gone from captain to cheerleader.

This, in front of an expectant crowd at the Stade de France, was the evening Ronaldo had been waiting for. In the 12 years since he played in the European Championship final as a 19-year-old, reduced to tears by Greece’s victory in Lisbon, he has won it all, but this, he hoped, would be his crowning glory, the night when he led Portugal to their first leading trophy and ascended to an even higher level of sporting greatness.

Twenty-five minutes. That, after counting down the hours with his Swiss timepiece, was as long as Ronaldo lasted before being carried off, in tears, on a stretcher. In truth, it is stretching it to say that he lasted that long. His evening was wrecked by a challenge from Dimitri Payet in the eighth minute, his opponent winning the ball but clattering into Ronaldo’s left knee. He was desperate to carry on, to play through the pain barrier and produced something heroic, something epoch-defining, but it was no good. The pain was too much. He had to leave the stage - which no doubt pained him much, much more. To add to the sense of indignity, a moth landed on his eyebrow as he was waiting for the stretcher to arrive.

Dimitri Payet (R) looks on as Portugal's forward Cristiano Ronaldo falls after his challenge. Picture: AFP

What a wretched sight. What a sad moment, not just for Ronaldo but for the sport that he illuminates so vividly. The locals inside the stadium had been intent on booing his every touch of the ball, casting him as the pantomime villain on what they hoped would be a night of celebration for France, and jeered and whistled at him when he first called for treatment after Payet’s challenge. By the time he left the pitch in a state of dismay, the crowd had realised what had happened and the jeers turned to respectful, even reverent applause for a giant of the game.

Portugal fans gather in Petersham, in Sydney, to celebrate victory. Picture: Jarrah Petzold

We can talk about the handful of occasions when football’s greats have turned in a championship-winning performance in the final of an international tournament - Pele certainly, Diego Maradona in 1986, Zinedine Zidane in 1998, the Brazilian version of Ronaldo in 2002 - but these are exceptions. More often than not, these showpiece events bring heartbreak: Maradona’s tears in 1990, Zidane bizarrely ending his career in disgrace with a red card for a headbutt on Marco Materazzi at the 2006 World Cup, even the bizarre events surrounding the young (Brazilian) Ronaldo’s appearance at the World Cup final in this very stadium in 1998, when he had convulsions before the match and was briefly left out of the starting XI, only to play and to go through the motions, looking almost haunted as the game passed him and Brazil by. Lionel Messi grasped in search of inspiration at the World Cup final in Brazil two years ago, but just could not quite find it.

Portugal coach Fernando Santos and Ronaldo. Picture: AP

This felt even more cruel than any of those episodes. As for whether Payet has a case to answer, it did not look like a deliberate challenge, and he got the ball, but it was certainly forceful, the way he clattered into Ronaldo’s knee after the ball had gone. It was one of those challenges where, under football’s terribly ambiguous rules, a referee could have waved play on, as Mark Clattenburg did, or shown a yellow card and there would have been equal levels of dissent either way.

There was something tragic about the sight of Ronaldo grimacing, falling on his backside, undergoing treatment on the pitch, playing on, then limping off for more treatment and coming back on with his left knee strapped up. At one stage Danny Mills, the former England full back, said on BBC Radio Five Live that he thought Ronaldo was “attention-seeking”, but it was clear that he was not. He could barely break into a trot and so, finally, after an excruciating run through the middle of the pitch, hoping to lead a counterattack, he succumbed.

Ronaldo was back on the pitch at the end of normal time, now in a tracksuit top, his knee still bandaged, trying to gee up his team-mates for the extra half-hour. They had laboured unconvincingly without him, but they had laboured unconvincingly through the tournament even with him as their leader. He had made some outstanding contributions, most notably his two goals in the chaotic 3-3 draw with Hungary that saw Portugal squeeze through the group stage, but it had been tough going for him and for his team.

That is why it had felt like it might be now or never for Ronaldo if he was to add a trophy-winning performance to his record of 61 goals in 132 appearances for his country. The same thought took hold while watching Messi, his greatest adversary, play for Argentina against Chile in the Copa America final. Rather than add to his legend, Messi missed a penalty in the shoot-out as Argentina were beaten and he ended up saying that he was done with international football - at least for the time being. That same sense of fatalism may even have occurred to Ronaldo at times.

Then Eder struck and Ronaldo celebrated. He was a nervous wreck as the minutes ticked down, reduced to tears - and yes, tears of joy, unconfined joy.

The Times