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Cristiano Ronaldo showed how much he has improved over the years. Once labeled a showboat and a flopper, he is currently the undisputed soccer genius, who has demonstrated that he has the ability to lead his team to victory. Its wasn’t just his skills that won people over, but rather it was the way he want to play the game, his passion for winning. Nobody gets up after a tackle and run again with the same kind of intensity and pace as him. In watching him play, as a audience, i find myself mesmerized by the phenomenal body language exuding from this young man. It almost appears that no matter what the other team does, he is going to beat you.

In this game vs Czech Republic, Ronaldo scored one and assisted in two goals, and he showed his maturity as the team captain when Numo Gomez handed over the Captain’s armband to him in the second half. In the last minute of regulation, from a brilliant quick free kick by one of his team mate, he was on in a flash, and despite being one-on-one with Peter Cech, he unselfishly chose to square the ball to Ricardo Quaresma for the final goal of the game.

Ascendency of Cristiano Ronaldo

Great players do not happen by chance. They chose to be. The ascendency of Cristiano Ronaldo began in 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany. In the QF against England, he was largely blamed for the sending off of his team mate Wayne Rooney. He was even caught on camera, doing a hood-wink, which seem to suggest that he was delighted to have succeeded. With scores of nationalistic soccer fans in England, there was no surprise that he was soon the no.1 public enemy in England, and some feared he might not even returned to Manchester United after the World Cup. But Manchester United has Sir Alex Ferguson, and he was a master in coaxing the best out of a player after an extreme disappointment, with the likes of Eric Cantana and David Beckham as prime examples.

In the following season, Cristiano Ronaldo was booed at every game, including his own home games. Yet he not only ignored the boos, but rather he seemed to be energized by the boos. Night in night out, he played his hearts out. The passion, the determination to play, to win, was written over his face, and displayed in his skills on the field for all to see. That Manchester United finished the season as EPL Champions can largely be attributed to a level of team work and discipline not seen in recent years, but few can argue the brilliance of Cristiano Ronaldo played an all-important part. From being booed at every game, he slowly won over the fans, and at the end of the season, fans were turning up in droves not to boo him, but to be entertained and charmed by his skills.

One could only hope that he do not trod the path of many greats like Ronaldinho and Maradona, to be have the mesmerizing skills that one can dream about, yet to be entrapped by the ills of wealth, drugs, alcohol and women.