PARIS — Cristiano Ronaldo spends a lot of time alone. Alone on the wing, alone in his kitchen, alone in his thoughts, where, by his own admission, much of his focus is on whether he will again win the Ballon d’Or award — the world player-of-the-year honor, which, of course, is for a single, solitary superstar.
Ronaldo does not mind this (or, at least, he says he embraces it). Even by modern athletic standards, his entourage is necessarily small: his agent, his manager, a few close friends and his family. That is it. He often eats lunch by himself, often drives to practice by himself. Over the last 13 years, he has cultivated an image as someone who lives lavishly and luxuriously — estimates are that he is worth $320 million and so the pictures of him on a yacht are to be expected — yet also in relative quiet.
He has his 6-year-old son, Cristiano Jr. He has his agent and father or brother figure, Jorge Mendes. He has his soccer and his stardom and, depending on the particular parameters of the argument, his place on or near the top of the list of soccer’s greatest figures.
But here is the thing: Much of Ronaldo’s life is built upon his place at his club team, Real Madrid. This is not to say that Real Madrid is a house of loners or that there is no team spirit there; to the contrary, the club is strong and rich, and many of its supporters are passionate and devoted and true. But it is also undeniable that because of Madrid’s exorbitant resources — last year’s payroll was estimated at $180 million — there is a culture of stars, many of whom come and go. And Ronaldo, who has been the rare mainstay, is the brightest.
With Portugal’s national team, though, it is different. Ronaldo is still the biggest star, even more so than with Madrid, but the meaning of his presence, and the results, are not the same. On Sunday, Ronaldo will captain Portugal when it faces France in the final of the European Championships, the first time Portugal has been in a major final since it was stunned, on home soil, by Greece in the 2004 Euros.
Ronaldo was 19 then, a wunderkind who cried on the field after the final whistle. It was a brutal, bitter experience, but it did not stick to him, did not tarnish him. Neither did disappointing defeats in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup or the 2012 Euros. In this era, results in international play are an additive to a player’s legacy, a bonus. Consider: Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the near-universal choices as the best players in the game, yet neither has helped his country lift a significant trophy.
On Sunday at the Stade de France, that may change. Ronaldo has said, many times, that he craves a title for Portugal, that it is a dream for him. It is, presumably, a pure one, too: Winning will do little for Ronaldo financially. It will not make him more famous, either. Portugal has a population of a little more than 10 million; Ronaldo has six times that many Instagram followers.
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What it would do, however, is bind Ronaldo to a group. It would bring him together, forever, with his teammates, with the support staff, with the coach, Fernando Santos, who watched Portugal lose to Greece while serving as a radio commentator and now, more than a decade later, has brought his country back to the cusp again. At Real Madrid, Ronaldo’s winning the club’s 10th (and 11th) Champions League title or its umpteenth Spanish league title does not come with a similar immortality. The team’s dominance makes any one squad’s glory bleed together with the rest. With Portugal, there is nowhere else for the color to run.
It is sometimes difficult to know whether Ronaldo actually wants that kind of collectiveness. In a recent documentary about him (titled, simply, “Ronaldo”), he describes himself as “an isolated person” and, in explaining why he played in the 2014 World Cup for Portugal despite being injured, says: “If we had two or three Cristiano Ronaldos in the team, I would feel more comfortable. But we don’t.”
Similarly, in an interview with GQ published this year, Ronaldo was asked to name the most important game of his career. After a moment’s pause, he said, “When I score five goals.”
Many athletes would have immediately pivoted the question to the team, to the fate of the unit. After Antoine Griezmann scored both goals in France’s semifinal victory over Germany, his first response to a question included a lengthy ode to the team’s training staff and equipment crew for their contributions. And a few seconds after Ronaldo’s first response, he did relent and cite the Champions League final victories. But his initial reaction was telling.
Such an answer does not mean he is selfish or self-absorbed (though one could argue that the life-size wax figure and museum devoted to his personal history do). Instead, it may simply show just how little experience Ronaldo has with being part of a group.
At this tournament, Portugal has had the expected mix. Younger players, like midfielders João Mário and Renato Sanches, have shown poise and promise, while veterans, like Nani and Pepe, have offered balance and steadiness. Portugal did not impress for much of the last month — three draws in the group stage followed by an extra-time victory, a win in a penalty shootout and, finally, a solid defeat of Wales in the semifinals — but it did enough. Along the way, even as others contributed, many of the key moments, including the decisive goal against the Welsh, came from Ronaldo.
If he, and his teammates, can do it one more time Sunday, it will be a seminal moment for Portugal and its fans, as well as for Ronaldo, who, for a change, would not go down in history alone. He and his teammates would be celebrated together, praised together, lionized together. Most important, they would be remembered together.
So will he be giving something to them, or will they be giving something to him? In this case, it feels as if it would be a little of both.
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