A clip has been doing the rounds on social media following the Carabao Cup final last weekend. We won’t share it here because the imbeciles responsible don’t need any more attention than they’ve already received, but it essentially involved some alleged Liverpool fans near the steps of the Royal Box at Wembley filming the defeated Chelsea players as they rushed to withdraw the medals of the runners-up and launched a series of stupid taunts at them.
They booed the “snake” Raheem Sterling, who left their club almost ten years ago. They also politely inquired about Moises Caicedo’s mother, who apparently contributed to his decision to move to Stamford Bridge rather than Anfield in the summer – completely normal adult behaviour.
None of the players involved even seemed to raise an eyebrow in response, which was quite surprising when, given the circumstances and with family members involved in everything, you would have understood if they had gone in full force to Cantona.
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Actually, maybe it’s not that surprising: as a footballer you have to develop a sort of deflector shield, an impenetrable bubble around your head so you literally don’t feel things like that, or if you do it falls on someone. dead space in your brain, without ever actually registering it with your consciousness. There is no benefit in reacting: you seem mean and, in the best tradition of a parent telling their child not to deal with bullies, you give them more satisfaction than they deserve.
Which is an indirect way of catching Cristiano Ronaldo, who reacted to insults from the public and was duly punished for it.
Ronaldo was banned for one match from the Saudi Pro League and penalized to the tune of 30,000 Saudi riyals (£6,332; $8,000) in fines and costs for making what was described as an “obscene gesture” towards fans during his meeting with Al. The recent 3-2 victory of the Nassr team against Al Shabab.
Ronaldo plays for Al Nassr (Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)
This was apparently in response to something he has been subject to for much of his career: chants of “Messi, Messi” from the stands. Ronaldo cupped his ears, then crouched halfway down and made a strange gesture with his hand near his crotch: if I were completely innocent it might look like he was polishing a tabletop, but if I wasn’t it might look… .well, you get it.
A few things come to mind after this. One is that, unlike Sterling and Caicedo, it’s clear that it doesn’t take much to get a reaction from Ronaldo, one of the most famous men on the planet, presumably very used to being yelled at by a faceless crowd.
He and Messi have been involved in this sort of tedious death struggle for around 15 years now, the two constantly comparing and contrasting each other. You can therefore understand why it will have become incredibly boring to say the least, especially considering that they haven’t played in the same league since 2018 and haven’t been on the same pitch in a competitive match together since 2020. .
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Neither currently plays in Europe and both of their most significant achievements are almost certainly a thing of the past. The Messi-Ronaldo rivalry no longer exists, at least not for the rest of the world.
But clearly for Ronaldo it still is, a small worm of insecurity that has crept into his soul and nests there. Why else would he bother responding to the mere mention of Messi’s name?
The two situations are not perfect comparisons and are partly lumped together here only because they both occurred in the past week or so, but it’s notable how Sterling and Caicedo were able to ignore far more personal abuse from closer proximity, while it was enough mention another man’s name to provoke Ronaldo’s reaction.
It’s also a long way from the first time. Just last November, Ronaldo silenced the crowd during Al Nassr’s match against Al Ettifaq when the “Messi, Messi” chant was started by another unimaginative group. In the larger scheme of things, these are all very minor things, but it makes you wonder what fragility of a man’s ego it is that the mere mention of a rival player’s name registers, let alone inspire a response of any kind, not to mention one that makes you pause.
Probably everything is not even ideal for the Saudi Pro League project. Ronaldo was their main signing and it was a success as he scored a lot of goals and attracted a lot of interest, but it wasn’t the plan for their key player, one of the main legitimizing factors of the championship, to be suspended like this.
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Add Jordan Henderson leaving after six months and the continuing soap opera around Karim Benzema and it’s been a mixed bag since they started throwing money around.
For Ronaldo, it’s hard to pinpoint why this is all so bleak, but it could be because it’s all so undignified for everyone involved. Despite him being a near-superhuman and an absolutely freak athlete, he has little time left to devote to his career, so he feels a little sad that this is how he is spending his last days as a footballer.
Playing in a sub-standard league – which wasn’t the plan, no matter how much he insisted otherwise – still haunted by the ghost of the man he was compared to his entire career, but who wasn’t really relevant to him for a long time . half a decade. It could have all been very different.
Ronaldo and Messi play against each other in 2020 (David Ramos/Getty Images)
Perhaps this is the internal hell of the hyper-driven mentality of someone like Ronaldo. Nothing other than being considered the best is good enough, so even the mention of the one guy who could deny him that title, at least in his generation, is enough to set him off.
He’ll dry his eyes on his incredible wealth and extraordinary list of accomplishments, but you’ll get the sense that he’ll never be truly satisfied when it comes time to look back on his career.
For someone who has achieved as much as he has achieved, it all seems rather bleak.
(Top photo: Yasser Bakhsh/Getty Images)