Everybody doubted Cristiano Ronaldo. Everybody said he was the problem. People said Portugal needed to score without him, that Gonçalo Ramos would do a better job than a 41-year-old, that he was taking the national team backward, that he runs things like he's the coach and not the captain. Then he scored twice against Uzbekistan, and the tune changed pretty fast.
For you, the people who criticize Ronaldo are jealous of him, whether that's Henry, Ibrahimović, or even his own teammates like Bruno, Cancelo, and Bernardo Silva. Ronaldo represents something simple: if you perform, work hard, stay disciplined, and stay consistent, the sky is the limit. Nobody talks about Messi the same way when he disrespected the Dutch manager Van Gaal at the last World Cup, just because Van Gaal said his team would try not to let Messi have the ball. What was the opposing manager supposed to say, that they'd let Messi score? It wasn't a friendly. Defenders are allowed to try and tackle him. And Messi always gets away with it. Even this World Cup, the first game he played, there was a foul that should've been a red card and it wasn't given. It's always been that way — anyone who even touches Messi gets a foul called against them.
Look at where they each came from. Ronaldo had to fight for everything. Messi was born with serious talent — not saying he didn't work hard or wasn't disciplined too — but at 14 he was already at Barcelona, one of the biggest clubs in the world, being groomed and compared to Maradona before he'd even played a senior game. Then a guy from Portugal who nobody outside the country knew had to make his own name from nothing. That's what's wrong with how people judge this: the king's son is expected to be the next king, and the world struggles to accept that the underdog can become the king too, even though everyone loves that story when it's in a movie.
Messi won everything at Barcelona, but he had elite players around him for almost his whole career there. When he left for another league, he barely won anything beyond the domestic title — and PSG is one of the only clubs in that league to win it in over a decade anyway. With Neymar, Mbappé, and Messi all in the same side, they still couldn't get the Champions League. Ronaldo joined United and won everything, went to Madrid and won everything, went to Juventus and couldn't get the Champions League either, but along the way created history coming back from three goals down against Atlético. Then at 36 or 37 he went back to the Premier League — arguably the most physical, competitive league there is — and still put up around 20 goals.
Messi gets treated like royalty in his own national team. Ronaldo doesn't get that same respect, even from his own players — when he's in space and needs the ball, sometimes it doesn't come, and a shot gets taken instead. Call it what it is. Henry criticized Ronaldo after the first game, but it's worth remembering Henry never lifted the Champions League with Arsenal and had to go to Barcelona to finally win one, while Ronaldo won it with both United and Madrid. Whatever Henry or Zlatan do in their careers, the history books talking about Messi will always have to mention Ronaldo too, and that's a hard thing to sit with if you're either of them.
Ronaldo is still underrated. Driven, hungry, disciplined, and at 41, still doing it.
Let me know your thoughts.