The great players, such as the great personalities of literature, cinema, politics or war, are often admired and reviled alike. The reason is simple: they do not leave anyone indifferent. With their extraordinary actions, they go out of the ordinary and awaken as many philias as phobias.
Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Juve. Every time the Portuguese star is in the eye of the hurricane, the speeches that brand him as a selfish, arrogant, capricious, narcissistic, vain type, with many pretenses of deification return. Beyond himself, there would be no one: not the team, not the club. He would not respect neither the rival nor his own.
They are common and possibly accurate criticisms. In any case, the reason that Cristiano wants to leave Turin is really simple: Vecchia Signora is not currently there to compete among the biggest and Cristiano is one of those guys who is pissed off to lose even Ludo.
The Romans honored their victorious generals with the privilege of parading in a triumphal chariot through the streets of Rome to the Temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill. The victor displayed his prisoners and loot in public. In the same car, and behind the protagonist, a slave held a gold crown on his head, and whispered in his ear: «Look back. Remember that you are a man. Tertullian, a Christian author of the second century, perfectly understood the meaning of this custom: “So splendid is the moment of glory that he lives, that it is necessary to remind him of his mortal condition.”
Many think that Cristiano could use a bath of humility and probably someone should have reminded him, after each of his triumphs, that all success is temporary and that, as Machado wrote, it is not advisable to lose contact with the ground, to not to forget our true stature.
Roman philosophers and historians saw the same problems with winners: entertained by the mob, and accustomed to success and luxury, they lost themselves. But at the same time, they enthroned their particular champions. Pompey the Great, for example, belonged to the select group of generals who had deserved up to three triumphal parades. What, according to Plutarch, made Pompey so extraordinary is that he had achieved each of those three victories on a different continent. With his exploits in Africa, Europe and Asia, it seemed that “his triumphs were a sign that the whole world had surrendered to his feet.”
Like Pompeyo Magno, Cristiano Ronaldo can boast of having triumphed in three of the most demanding competitions in the world: the Premier, La Liga and Calcio. Both began to arouse admiration from a very young age, which in fact led to criticism from veterans. Giving the nickname “Magnus” to a general of only 24 years aroused envy. For his first triumphal parade, Pompey ordered that his chariot be drawn not by horses, as usual, but by elephants. He was branded as arrogant, but others considered this extravagance to be in line with his extraordinary achievements.
Like Pompey, Cristiano showed from a young age an incredible self-confidence, or an excessive conceit, depending on how you look at it. When he arrived at Manchester United at 18, the sacred cows of the team (Giggs, Ferdinand, Scholes …) subjected him to what today we would call “bullying”. They laughed at him when, in the dressing room, and in front of the mirror, he wore his formidable athlete’s body, as if he were the one that inspired the Discobolus and other sculptures of antiquity. With his muscular poses, Cristiano can look ridiculous. But there is something of a classic hero in which, to the ridicule of his English companions, they say that he replied: ‘Don’t be fools. They should not laugh at the one who will be the best player in the world.
The criticisms of Ronaldo are the same as those 2,000 years ago against Pompey and other heroes of legendary proportions. But equally, it is impossible not to recognize the tenacity, discipline, effort and audacity that are behind the triumphs of CR7. The Romans long ago would have crowned him “Christianus Magnus.” To Caesar what is Caesar’s.
.
