11th June 2009 will be a memorable day in the history of football. Cristiano Roanldo will be bought by Real Madrid for a record breaking £80 million and on Tyneside it seems a Singapore based group will pay a similar figure for the whole of Newcastle United.
Ardent United fans and Premiership lovers have begun their justification of the Ronaldo sale. Apparently, the World Player of the Year is not worth this sum of money and United can easily replenish their squad with 3 or 4 world class players. Also, many believe petulance and lack of desire are sufficient reasons to part company with the Portuguese superstar.
Madrid need not worry about Ranaldo’s petulance, the 2006 World Cup Quarter Final between England and Portugal saw the player unveil his biggest asset, he was a winner. Despite becoming public enemy number one to England fans, Ronaldo stepped up to take the final penalty and smashed the ball into the top right hand corner. Upon arriving back in England for the Premiership season, the number 7 tolerated hostile football fans, helping United win their first league title in 4 years.
Fear and intimidation often distort the small margins at the highest level of sport and Madrid with their investment will be getting a 6ft 2 footballing weapon. I wonder how many Real Madrid matches will be won in the tunnel before the game when opposition players line up side by side with Ronaldo and Kaka. The Spanish League allows players additional time on the ball which could perfectly suit the Portuguese forward after 6 years in England.
As a support striker or a winger, Ronaldo will score goals. In all competitions he has scored 90 goals in the last 3 seasons and there is no reason to believe this will ease up. A similar goal scoring rate for Madrid would inevitably mean trophies for the team who are desperate to apply the brakes on Barcelona’s success.
His boyhood dream of playing for Madrid is being realised and no football team should try excessively hard to retain players that do not have their hearts in the club. However, the justification stops there and even with £80 million, United will not immediately replace the immense figure that is Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo is on track to earn back every penny, but we can’t comment on whether United would have won the title with Ronaldo this year.
it’s funny how i don’t really talk about his commercial value… shows what i think of his talent.