Some days start out badly but end up being pretty good. Cristiano Ronaldo began it by getting crushed in the derby against Atletico Madrid while putting on his worst performance of the season. It followed by getting quite angry at a reporter, but finished it celebrating his 30th birthday.
Some fans don’t like seeing players going out at all. Others hate to see players actually separating their personal lives from their professional ones and not getting into severe depression after every loss or generally bad result.
But Ronaldo is human. And while it obviously hurt him and his team to get manhandles in such a way against Atletico, losing in the derby for the fourth time this season (out of six matches), at some point the frustration and humiliation can’t become the main thing about your post-match ritual.
For Ronaldo it began by answering quite aggressively to an question about the Cordoba match. He called it “unintelligent” preferring to be asked about the current state of affairs, which is handling the Derby loss which means Barcelona can narrow the gap from them to one point and Atletico Madrid finding themselves back in the title race.
And the night ended with a party. Ronaldo, if you haven’t been on the internet this week, has just turned 30. The world hasn’t actually changed because of him becoming a year older and hitting the big 3-0, but it was another opportunity to milk every possible click and traffic view by spewing out the numbers of his career and highlights he’s responsible for.
The main thing to remember? Ronaldo didn’t take one shot at goal during the entire game. He didn’t do a single meaningful thing. Atletico Madrid followed the Simeone plan perfectly, and made the Ballon d’Or winner for the past two years to disappear.