Peace for Cristiano: Bicho’s last World Cup breath | CHRONICLE

Cristiano Ronaldo He will never forget this 2022, the year in which he scored the fewest times in his entire career. The season in which he spent the most time on the substitute bench. The period where less protagonist has been. And that’s a lot for the second earthling after Messi that has caused the most covers and searches in the last fifteen years.

Every time someone says that ronaldo He is the best striker in history, there is always a South American who asks: which Ronaldo? The ‘Freak’ or the ‘Bug’? Very few question that doubt that hides a background: detracting from the Portuguese and his more than eight hundred goals. The reasons? They are almost never just football. It is not that the fantasy of Ronaldo, the Brazilian, is incomparable. And that rather the Portuguese Ronaldo was losing magic as he became a scorer. OK out. In the balance they always enter to carve his attitudes. The character that he cannot stop being, but also the one that the press has built for him, as opposed to Messi.

At 50 minutes, at the dawn of the second half, Fernando Suárez, the second coach with whom he got involved for not accepting that the years passed over him, urgently sent him to the field. Georgina Rodríguez, from the rostrum, smiled: her subtle claim had taken effect. His beloved Cristiano made his entrance, and with him all the photographers who had never portrayed a substitute so much.

But in front was a memorable team: Morocco and its horde of warriors. From Bono, that wall with the face of a soap opera protagonist, to Ziyech and his tricks to keep the ball tied, passing through Amrabat, a midfielder from the Gattusso and Kanté lineage, and Hakimi, that arrow from the right lane. But it was En-Nesyri and an NBA dunk-worthy leap that has allowed Morocco Lay your hands on the sport’s walk of fame. A leap that reminded us of the Cristiano from just a few years ago. That’s how time beats.

Portugal He was master and lord of the second half. He camped in the Moroccan area, but none of his flyers were able to find the lantern and turn it on. Neither Bruno Fernandes, nor Joao Félix nor Vitinha. More than attending, they tried from afar. But Bono and his hands were there to get in the way of his wishes. Pepe, that other one who is leaving, had a header towards the end, but it went wide; Y Cristiano Ronaldoa ball in the alley, to which he could not give enough strength, perhaps the unequivocal sign that he is not the one from before.

leaves Christian, holding their faces, without exchanging shirts with anyone, without receiving the hug from their rivals or from their teammates who can barely cope with their tragedies. He goes to the locker room to cry quietly. Let’s give him that truce. A little peace in the worst year of his life.