Cristiano Ronaldo is not just a polarising figure among football supporters. Some managers don’t know what to make of him either.
Jose Mourinho, who managed Ronaldo at Real Madrid, has criticised his former player for his behaviour in Portugal’s triumphant Euro 2016 final.
It’s impossible not to remember the image of Ronaldo, animated and unquiet, as he roared his team on to a late victory over tournament favourites France.
Having been forced out of the game early on with a knee injury, the captain adopted a cheerleading role alongside Portugal boss Fernando Santos.
And Mourinho, as pleased as he would have been to see his native country lift the Euro 2016 trophy, believes the win had nothing to do with Ronaldo’s touchline gesticulations.
“Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t help in any way by doing that in the final few minutes of the Euros final,” Mourinho told Portugal’s SporTV. “There were 11 players on the pitch doing their job, and the person in charge of directing them was the coach.
“I saw it as an overload of emotion from someone who saw that the team was just minutes away from achieving an objective which everyone wanted.”
And while Ronaldo’s intention was likely to motivate, Mourinho believes he simply lost the run of himself in the significance of the occasion.
“He lost a little emotional control — not that that’s a bad thing,” Mourinho continued. “But what my experience tells me is that it is in these moments, when important decisions might need to be made, that the players are lost in their own little worlds.”
