It’s sad that the second best footballer in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo of Real Madrid if you had a shred of a doubt about the identity, needs to resort to constant diving in order to get himself cheap penalties – for wins, for goals, and to unethically break records.
The bottom line, as our editor loves to say, is what matters. Real Madrid won, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 69th Champions League goal which brings him even closer to Raul and puts him one above Lionel messi.
So what if the penalty he did score (after missing the first) came from another one of his famous dives inside the box. It’s hard to call it even a bodycheck. Ronaldo ran into the shin of Cosmin Moti, spun like a top and landed on the ground, making that ‘I deserve a whistle’ face which earned him the penalty kick he so badly wanted.
Diego Maradona was never questioned of his greatness because of the famous hand ball against England. For some it made him even greater, although there are so many question marks about the person he was, the example he set and his way to greatness in that 1986 World Cup, achieved by blatantly cheating and being proud of it.
Ronaldo doesn’t take pride in his dives or the way he tries to deceive officials with calls for handballs and fouls that never happened. He simply hies those imperfections by scoring a lot of goals. But great players should be a cut above the rest, not just in ability, but in attitude and behavior as well. Ronaldo doesn’t need to cheat to be great and win. Or maybe he does?
