Even on a perfect day with a hat trick and a 5-0 win for Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo had to spoil the celebration by scoring one of those goals with his elbow. He didn’t intend to, but it didn’t stop him from celebrating. But that’s him, in a nutshell, more or less. And it doesn’t seem like he’s going to stop anytime soon.
Ronaldo has scored 13 league goals in six matches – 17 goals in 11 matches in all competitions, including the Spanish Super Cup and the Champions League. Most of the teams in Europe, if you still haven’t realized, haven’t scored this much. His scoring average in the league – 2.17, is better than that of 91 of the 97 teams in Europe’s top-5 leagues, not including Real Madrid.
There’s no end in sight. He’s not going to change positions, because Ronaldo is good for one thing: Scoring. Yes, he did set up Karim Benzema for the fourth goal, but that kind of passing and camaraderie is seen from Ronaldo only after he feels satisified, or at least a little bit calmer that he’s scored two goals.
Ronaldo isn’t selfish. He wants to win. Badly. But just like Kobe Bryant, he wants to win his way. He’s not going to regress into a winger that crosses and looks out for open teammates all of a sudden. Those days are gone, for nearly a decade. While his hunger and drive for goals might sometime come at the expense of other players, it’s more than often the best way for Real Madrid to score goals and win matches.
The two league losses and the defeat in the Supercoppa are forgotten. They’re already past Atletico Madrid in the table and are now waiting for Barcelona to start slipping up at some point. So far it hasn’t happened except for one draw at Malaga, but if Ronaldo keeps on scoring at this rate or even slightly lower, it’s safe to say there’s going to be an interesting title race in the Spanish La Liga.