Change sometimes can be such a scary thing. If you are the kind who keeps the same haircut for over two decades, you’ll know what I mean. Isn’t it harder trying a new hairstyle than to make a million trips in a cramped Mumbai local train?
I really admire those who take the leap, eyes wide open, without a care in the world. Of course, there are others whose false bravado or cockiness makes them do the outrageous. I don’t know which category Cristiano Ronaldo fits into. Maybe somewhere in between.
I think highly of his talent. There aren’t many better. I am over the moon that he is moving to Real Madrid, despite many – particularly in England — calling him a mercenary, a traitor. But I also think this change might do him more harm than good, if he doesn’t learn his lessons in modesty soon. There are chances he might even unlearn the discipline Sir Alex Ferguson drills into all his wards.
Real can do this to you. It is such kind of a place. It is the place for superstars. A player goes there to entertain, to show his art, his mastery at the biggest platform.
Ronaldo’s biggest problem is the awareness of his own greatness. And Real Madrid’s only going to make that bloated head of his bigger.
The signs are already showing.
He has been in the United States for about two weeks, celebrating this big change in his life in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. A bevy of women on his arms all the time, wild nights, free-flowing alcohol…Ronaldo’s partying harder than ever before. Paris Hilton’s become a friend of his.
It might not be any different even when he gets to Madrid. The Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz thinks so too. “It’s something to do with the fashion, the television, a different game that is in place nowadays. I must say that at Real Madrid, these things can happen very easily,” English papers reported Queiroz as saying.
Ronaldo is only 24. I refuse to believe that his best years may be past him. He has taken the leap. He has embraced change. I hope he can keep his sanity despite the profligacy that awaits him at Madrid. I wish him well.
