Cristiano Ronaldo: A footballing ‘New God’ bringing order, chaos and adulation

Of all the gods, being the god of football, one of the New Gods, is pretty mundane, really, in comparison to the Old Gods. Look at some of the gods the Ancient Greeks worshipped, for example: Zeus could hurl lightning bolts at will, Hera could transform into a bird to spy on others or avoid detection, Poseidon was able to stir up hurricanes to sink ships, create horses out of sea foam and destroy entire cities by creating earthquakes.

Cristiano Ronaldo can, well, score goals. Which kind of feels meek, in comparison. Although in today’s world of New Gods, a few thousand years on from the Ancient Greeks, goal-scorers of such greatness are what the masses tend to worship. There is certainly something supernatural about a 34-year-old who should be well on his way to retirement telling close family and friends that he would score a hat-trick against Atletico Madrid to overcome Juventus’s two-goal deficit, and then going on to do just that.

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“He’s a living football god,” Rio Ferdinand, Ronaldo’s former team-mate at Manchester United, said after Ronaldo almost singlehandedly hauled Juventus through to the Champions League quarter-final draw. Much like Atlas, who Zeus ordered to hold up the celestial heavens above his head for eternity, Tuesday night was the modern-day footballing equivalent; Ronaldo carrying the weight of an entire football club and his team-mates on his own broad shoulders. Good job that, at his age, he maintains such exquisite shape; that god-like physique.

Order and chaos

Yet the Old Gods were both worshipped and loathed, brought order and chaos, good and bad, and the New Gods are no different. Until Las Vegas police give a verdict on whether Ronaldo has a case to answer as they continue their reopened investigation into rape allegations which he strongly denies, it will be impossible to watch the footballer without his performance being tainted.

The Ancient Greek gods were constantly bickering and competing against each other, in much the same way that Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, and their respective supporters, argue and compete for records and accolades – constantly jostling for the most adulation.

After Manchester City produced their own ethereal effort to brush aside Schalke like a god swatting away a mere mortal, Ronaldo’s Portugal team-mate Bernardo Silva admitted they would prefer to avoid Juventus in the next round.

“I wouldn’t like it very much to be honest,” Silva said. “I know him, I know what he’s capable of and once again [against Atletico Madrid] he proved it.

“When you are playing in a competition like the Champions League you have to know that you can get drawn against these kind of teams, these kind of players. It is a good thing. It means you are playing the best competitions, the best games and we will see who we are playing against. Of course to play against Cristiano and Messi it is always complicated.”

Ronaldo is, Silva says, yet to bring up the divisive comments of City’s manager, Pep Guardiola, who in February insisted that his player is “the biggest star already” in Portugal, adding that “he already has everything”. It seemed a snub to Ronaldo, or perhaps simply another of the New Gods causing mischief of his own.

They will keep believing

“I think people interpreted things a little different to what he meant,” Silva said, although he allowed himself a little smile. “Of course Cristiano, what he has done in over the last 15 years in football is probably one of the best players ever in the history of football so no comparison to him.”

The Tuesday night performance aside, Ronaldo is not quite the player he once was. Before the hat-trick he had only scored once in Europe this season and he is passing the ball and shooting from distance more than ever.

People stopped believing in the Old Gods eventually — but while Ronaldo continues to play like he did against Atletico Madrid, they will continue to have faith in him.