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People don’t like to be proven wrong. But never have I been more glad to be proven wrong.
Never did I think I would be among those doubting Cristiano Ronaldo. The 41-year-old looked human in Portugal’s opening World Cup match against DR Congo — laboured, anonymous, a shadow of the man who has dominated this sport for two decades. His shoulders slumped. His head dropped. It seemed, finally, that Ronaldo had started to fade.
But the highest goalscorer in the history of men’s international football has a habit of rising from adversity. When the pressure is highest, Ronaldo shines brightest. That’s what he’s done his whole career. Time and time again.
There’s a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche that comes to mind whenever Ronaldo has a bad game and then rebounds: “The advantage of a bad memory is that one enjoys several times the same good thing for the first time.”
