The world is still carrying on outside of the Euro bubble. The Barcelona – Real Madrid rivalry and enmity is alive and kicking, despite a few months of rest from the rivalry. Barcelona president, Sandro Rossell, decided to stir the pot by claiming Cristiano Ronaldo wouldn’t have place in his team’s starting lineup.
The same Ronaldo that scored 46 league goals and 60 in all competitions, winning the league title with Real Madrid and scored the winning goal in the final league Clasico at the Camp Nou. This, coming from a man whose team would have finished sixth without the goals of just one player, Lionel Messi. The same Ronaldo that has already been crowned best player in the world once, and might be crowned against come the turn of the year.
We do have the Spanish Super Cup in a couple of months, and it’s never too early to begin the war of words. While Tito Vilanova is probably less comfortable in engaging Jose Mourinho and the big talkers of Real Madrid, Rossell is far from feeling shy about the whole matter.
Cristiano Ronaldo is not the second best player in the world, he is the 12th. The first 11 are the Barcelona players. Outside Spain everyone is clear that Messi should win the Golden Ball, but only here you’ll find some who think that Ronaldo deserves to be named as the best player of the year.
You’d like to think that there’s some sort of ideology behind Rossell’s words, like not taking in a player who portrays arrogance so well, but these are just words. I don’t know how Ronaldo and Messi will co-exist, because Ronaldo, as Kaka has learned during his three seasons with Real Madrid, is a player who can’t take a step back and let his teammates take over. It has to be about him, through him, all game long. It’s usually for the best of the team, but not always.
As for his new manager, Rossell is already backing him up. No one has forgotten the famous eye poking incident between Mourinho and Vilanova, especially not Rossell. We’re pretty sure that the new Barcelona head coach hasn’t, and it’ll interesting to see the two interact before and during the next match between the two teams. For Rossell, Mourinho’s actions and tactics at times are not something he’d like to see at his club.
I wouldn’t accept a coach who wants to win at any cost. I would apologise if a coach put his finger in the eye of another.
While saying Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t belong in the Barcelona lineup is complete rubbish, Rossell does have a point with Mourinho. There’s a certain amount of class and behavior expectations from any manager, especially at such prestigious clubs. Mourinho lets his emotions and ego gets the best of him at times, which hurts himself and the club as well. It’s pretty much impossible to imagine him coaching Barcelona.