Not all football fans may have seen a small, but widely circulated, news story last week. It concerned the Portuguese and Real Madrid no. 7, who during his mercurial career has never been one to stray too far from some form of wind-up. However, this wasn't to do with anything that happened on the pitch, but rather what came out of Ronaldo's mouth.
Back in January 2007, I witnessed first hand the kind of widespread vitriol that was aimed at the then Manchester United talisman. Whilst warming up for an international friendly against Brazil, the crowd mercilessly booed his every touch in a near pantomime fashion. Admittedly, with the match at the Emirates stadium, there 'may' have been some bias from the fans gathered. But, it was his infamous wink at the proceeding summer's World Cup that had led to many fans abusing him afterwards, in the vast majority of stadiums around England.
Of course, many of those same fans can contribute to giving football a bad name, by either failing to see the bigger picture or simply not being at all rational. For example, in that World Cup, Wayne Rooney had hardly helped himself. His quarter-final sending off against Portugal was as much to do with his own frustrations, as it was to do with Ronaldo's goading. Witch hunts are a default mode for football fans when things go pear-shaped, and the passions that fly around often lead to there being the need for someone to blame, rather than any collective.
Still, this is a natural reaction when anything negative happens, from natural disasters to economic meltdowns, we all feel better venting our anger at a target. Of course, when a target seemingly goes out of their way to present themselves, one may start to question the psyche that is involved! This brings me to Ronaldo, who last week said, I quote, "I think that because I am rich, handsome and a great player people are envious of me. I don't have any other explanation".
This gem of a response came after Ronaldo was asked by an interviewer, in the wake of Real Madrid's 1-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb, his thoughts on their fans. Just like I had seen four years ago, Ronaldo was on the end of endless jeering. You could look at this response from many different angles, such as, is he that self-obsessed or was he deliberately trying to get a rise out of his detractors?
On the other hand, some people may say that it was a justified reaction from a player that has received more grief from football fans than any other in recent times, why should he have to put up and shut up? Well, in the grand scheme of things, he is an extremely talented football player at the top of his profession, and one who reportedly earns €11 million a year. With the current global markets as they are, I'm pretty confident that there would be a long line of the world's population who would gladly take that sort of trade off!
This doesn't mean that the rich and famous deserve abuse, far from it. Instead, I suggest that it may improve Ronaldo's standing if he was to be a little humble, kind of like his rival (and the altogether more gifted) Lionel Messi. Football fans are actually not that unforgiving, beyond the initial anger. Fabregas has left Arsenal as a revered player, he may have left for Barcelona after their incessant tapping-up, but he has still departed with good grace. Compare that with Samir Nasri, who has petulantly engaged in a war of words with Arsenal fans after joining Manchester City, and it is safe to say that the Frenchman has soured what reputation he had at the Emirates.
Unfortunately it does appear to be the case that too many of the generally rich and famous exist in a bubble of ignorance. Comments such as Ronaldo's only serve to ostracise him from ordinary members of the public, especially when the economy is in such strife and his inflated sense of self-worth apparently indicates our envy. Sadly football in general has failed to recognise this, with ticket prices continuing to rise, namely to cover the spiralling wages of players.
Regardless of the debates about salary caps or football clubs running at a loss, the fans of the sport can be just as fickle as they are forgiving. If Cristiano Ronaldo really wants to be remembered as one of the great players, he would do well to reign in his ego and to train his people skills up to match those of his feet. After all, without football fans making the game as popular as it is, he couldn't be so proud of being rich.