We All Live In The Age Of Cristiano Ronaldo

A few months ago, prior to the match against Hungary at the ongoing European championship, at the mandatory press conference, Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese legend, did something that would have profound global ramifications.

The five time ballon D'or winner pushed aside the bottles of coke in front of him and shouted out water in Portuguese.

What happened next, has been the basis of conversation; Coca Cola's numbers took a nose dive, from which it has since recovered. But what was extraordinary here was that, he was prepared and happy to defecate on a global brand with little recrimination from the football authorities or the viewing public.

While this was happening, his Instagram followers simply ballooned to a few hundred million more followers.

Even though his national team didn't fare too well in the competition, Cristiano, at the grand old age of thirty-six was still the highest goal scorer at the European championships.

Image courtesy of YouTube

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Fast Forward to the Crazy Month of August

Owing to the summer football competitions in Europe and South America along with the slightly truncated pre-season matches, the transfer window took quite a bit of time in coming alive, but when it did, it blew everything off the rafters.

First in was the news that Lionel Messi, Ronaldo's perennial rival would be leaving FC Barcelona. This was due to his club's inability to pay his wages (despite a huge pay cut). No sooner had this information emerged than speculation went to overdrive; where will the greatest footballer of all time go? Manchester City or Paris Saint-Germain?

Perhaps due to his close working relationship with the Brazilian talisman -Neymar jr, Messi opted to go for France, thus making the Qatari owned Paris Saint Germain, the most expensively assembled soccer team in the universe, with the likes of Kylian Mbappe, George Wijnaldum and Gianluigi Donnaruma.

The dust had barely settled from Messi's move when rumblings about Cristiano Ronaldo bubbled to the surface. Initially we were told that he would be headed to Paris, then news broke that he was deep into negotiations with Manchester City football club, the much hated rival team of where he first made his name -Manchester United.

That Cristiano Ronaldo seemed destined for the Emirati backed Manchester city got the football world buzzing with all sides expressing very strong views on the subject; To those who associated with Manchester united, it seemed like the worst possible case of treachery, akin to Judas Iscariot trading Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

And then out of nowhere, came in the announcement, that Manchester United had agreed terms and signed Ronaldo on a two year deal.

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Once the new emerged of Ronaldo's re-signing for the team that gave him his big break was confirmed, the speculation as to whether he would be given his favourite number 7 shirt began.

In Manchester United's distinguished long history, the No 7 shirt is seen as the club's most iconic; Indeed the likes of George Best, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and not forgetting Ronaldo wore this number with extraordinary aplomb.

The Uruguayan striker, Edison Cavani, prior to Ronaldo's arrival, was the holder of the iconic number 7, but even he would have had no complaints about being forced to hand over the most iconic club number to the most iconic football player of modern times.

Once the changes were rung and confirmed, Ronaldo replica shirts sold out in their hundreds of thousands and the Manchester United were all the better for it as they dominated the conversation on Twitter and Instagram. These days, going viral on social media means money for both club and player and there's being quite a bit of dosh going in their direction.

Owing to the timing of the signing, which took place shortly before the international break, meant that football fans all over the world who had been waiting for Ronaldo's second act would have to endure the suspense for a fortnight.

And while the world cup qualifiers were taking place, Cristiano Ronaldo was doing only what he knows best - scoring goals and breaking records - this time establishing a new record for the highest number of goals scored by a male footballer playing International football.

And sure enough, upon resumption of the football season, in his first game back at Manchester United, Cristiano registered his team's first two goals in the game against Newcastle United.

So what is it about Ronaldo that makes him the preeminent sportsman of our time?

From the acne faced teenager who joined England's greatest football club in 2003, Ronaldo has morphed into a one man killing machine, one who is the very embodiment of physical perfection, one who has inspired millions of young men around the world in the pursuit of having 0% body fat.

A player who has elevated his colleagues on the football pitch to heights unseen; This was the case at United in his spell and was evident in his time at Real Madrid, when they won the Europe's premier club competition in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018

And one who propelled his national team to its first ever international title in 2016, when Portugal defeated France in extra time.

Despite his age (he is 36 going on 37), Cristiano is showing absolutely no signs of slowing down, if anything, his relentless drive sets him apart from everyone else and yes that includes his greatest rival - Lionel Messi.

Given the sheer strength of mind and personality that Cristiano Ronaldo has, it's fair to say that we will see him on the pitch playing football long after his fortieth birthday and in doing so, many more records will inevitably tumble.

Why should we surprised?

We live in the age of Cristiano Ronaldo.