I'm analysed to death, says Ron
He is happy to pick up individual awards, perform
tricks in front of millions, take part in photo shoots and be
regarded as the best player in the world.
Yet he is struggling with the attention that comes with
all that. Ronaldo said: “I have come to understand that every
movement I make, on or off the pitch, is analysed to death. “If I
don’t celebrate goals, it is because I am sad. If I talk to the
public, it is because I have lost my humility. My slightest gesture
gets every type of criticism.
“People are always waiting for me to do something and
they just pick on what are absolutely normal and unimportant things
to criticise. “They analyse things that have nothing unusual about
them through a magnifying glass.”
Ronaldo would also like everyone to know he is very
humble, at the same time referring to himself in the third person
and claiming he gets criticised only as he is the best.
He says he is ‘a Cristiano Ronaldo who is humble,
respectful, works hard, is ambitious and a perfectionist’. The
Portuguese maestro declared: “Cristiano Ronaldo will continue to be
the same as he always was, regardless of what happens on and off
the pitch. “But as my friends say, and as people who know me well
say, they only criticise the best. So what else can I say? Just
that I am damned if I do and damned if I don’t.”
Ronaldo was heavily criticised recently, after being
quoted as saying he should finish first, second and third in the
poll for the world’s best player. But he insisted: “Anyone who
knows me knows I would never make that sort of statement. It would
not be right to show my professional colleagues so little respect
and, as well as that, it is not what I think.
“What I really think is that all the other players
nominated for the prize as the best player in the world have the
ability to win. “Anyone close to me knows that collective trophies
are much more important than individual prizes.
“Of course, I am not going to lie. I have to admit I am
proud of winning individual prizes. Also, I am not a hypocrite. And
so I think that, in view of everything that happened last season, I
am very well placed to win the prizes that are being
awarded.
“But I would never say I am the first, second and third
best in the world. “It is a question of respect for the other
candidates and because I think they all have the potential to
win.”
Ronaldo is back to his best form, after a summer ankle
operation and the controversy over his trying to move to Real
Madrid. He said: “I have scored some important goals, I have
improved and genuinely believe I can have a season as good as the
last one or even better.”
He was thankful on Sunday that his team-mates held out
for a win at Manchester City, after his 68th-minute sending-off for
a bizarre handball.
Ronaldo admitted: “It was a good game for United and a
vital victory. We ended up getting the result with 10 players and
that was undoubtedly very important.”
