He is, of course, and as he frequently points out, a truly
fabulous creature, beautiful, self-obsessed and for some years now,
and notwithstanding some notable charitable initiatives, the single
most important occupant of his extremely singular world.
He gave a quite early hint of this while walking away from
Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium where he won his first great prize of the
Champions League with Manchester United in 2008. He was asked if
perhaps he owed the supporters of that club some hint about his
future plans. "I explain myself to no one – not even my mother," he
declared.
It is also true that while he has intimate knowledge of his
Spanish world and European champion opponents in tonight's
semi-final, in some ways they might, like the hard, vodka-swigging
shot firers and furnace men, also belong to an alien species.
Football has rarely known such a polarisation of the concepts of
"I" and "us" as the one we can expect in the Iberian shoot-out at
the Donbass Arena.
The issue is simple enough. Few players have ever believed in
themselves quite as much as Ronaldo. Few teams have ever despised
the cult of the individual more deeply – or successfully – than
Spain. It means that Ronaldo is about to face something of an
ordeal, one which might just decide a tournament which has rarely
been less than intriguing.
While the Portuguese, led by coach Paulo Bento, mostly argue
vehemently that they too are a team but one which just happens to
have a player with the ambition, and maybe the means, to announce
himself as the world's best over the next few days, the midfielder
Custodio has offered one flash of candour: "Yes, we fight as a team
but, let's be honest, our weapon is not a big secret."
Indeed, the extent of Portugal's debt to Ronaldo if they should
win their first major trophy all these years after the great
Eusebio, would be unprecedented in international football but for
the fact that, 26 years ago, Diego Maradona all but carried
Argentina on his back to World Cup triumph in Mexico City. Can
Ronaldo do something of the same for his nation at this European
Championship?
Clearly he thinks so. His body language has rarely been more
animated and recently his potential to do more or less anything he
chooses was endorsed by Maradona no less. Ignoring his luminous
young compatriot Lionel Messi, Maradona announced: "I think that
Ronaldo is now the world's best player."
It was an extraordinary, if maybe somewhat perverse, tribute to
a player who has undoubtedly challenged Messi with his
extraordinary scoring feats and sheer athletic versatility for Real
Madrid in their breaking of the Barcelona stranglehold on La
Liga.
Even so, and despite the momentum he has created for Portugal
with three goals and killing interventions against the Netherlands
and the Czech Republic, his Bernabeu team-mate and Spain's captain
and goalkeeper, Iker Casillas, says, "I don't think right now he at
his best level but no one has to tell me I must be on my
guard."
If Ronaldo should happen to go up a notch tonight it could just
be that the Casillas vigilance will have to reach optimum
levels.
Ronaldo has already pointed out that his rival Messi has failed
to deliver the South American title for Argentina and even by his
own standards his reaction to any frustration here has been
intense.
"It is a great moment in my life and Portugal's football, and I
want this title very badly," he says. When he applied the sword to
the Netherlands in the final group game, the Portuguese dependence
on their captain verged on the hilarious.
In a blazing piece of role reversal, Ronaldo provided the
perfect scoring opportunity for his team-mate Nani. The Manchester
United player missed, horribly, and Ronaldo's face was consumed by
disbelief – and then filled with absolute serenity a few minutes
later when he fashioned a goal for himself with both sublime skill
and unfaltering conviction.
His expression said that he was more than the man. He was, at
that moment, the football universe.
It may be a beautiful state of mind but then there is no
escaping the possibility of an ugly denouement. Two years ago in
Cape Town, Spain's bone-deep faith in the team ethos overcame the
sporadic brilliance of Ronaldo in a hard, ill-tempered World Cup
second-round game.
Xabi Alonso, who found his own place in the Ukrainian sun with
the two goals that beat France in the quarter-final, expects a
similar outcome in Donetsk, saying: "The press say we are boring
but we are very secure in the way we play and our coach [Vicente
del Bosque] has a lot of faith in us – he gives us our liberty.
Portugal and Ronaldo are riding high. We can make small
adjustments, sure, for Ronaldo but playing as a team is the best
way to stop any player."
Despite criticism that Spain's relentless and often beautiful
passing rhythm has in some recent games tended to resemble an end
in itself, and left them vulnerable to a late and possibly
calamitous strike from technically inferior opponents, Del Bosque
remains confident. He believes that the loss of certainty in front
of goal created by the absence of leading World Cup marksman David
Villa can be overcome by the Spanish system that so effectively
starves the opposition of the oxygen of possession. What can
Ronaldo do, he wonders, if he doesn't get the ball?
One source of profitable reflection, Ronaldo's critics say,
might concern the fact that Pele, still generally accepted as the
world's greatest ever player, had one supreme gift among an armoury
of weapons that even Ronaldo might have envied. It was one of
humility. "I never saw Pele," said Sir Bobby Charlton, "ever do
anything that wasn't solely for the benefit of his team-mates. He
knew how great he was – but he also knew the importance of the
team."
Under the force of the Spanish inquisition, Portugal must pray
that something similar occurs to the great Ronaldo.
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