Ronaldo

by Luca Caioli

  Unfortunately for Cristiano, his other World Cup phantoms are much more real than the polemic sparked by his comments to the press. The biggest thing haunting the most expensive player in the world – the national team captain, the universal superstar, who has scored a total of 159 goals during his time at Sporting, Man United and Real – is his woeful World Cup balance sheet. In Germany he was protected from criticism because he was only 21 and Portugal put on such a good performance anyway. But his contributions were one penalty against Iran and one against England.

  In South Africa he has played the full length of each of the four matches and he has managed 21 shots on target (third after Messi and the Ghanaian Gyan), but he has only scored one goal. There has been no sign of the dazzling footballer, the competitor, the talented athlete, the player who never gives up and always wants to win. ‘Did the formation limit Cristiano, or was he the one who was unable to give more?’ asks Lisbon sports paper Record. It’s a fair question. Perhaps the answer will emerge in Euro 2012.

  Chapter 22

  Fatherhood

  ‘Of course I change my son’s nappies. It’s not my favourite thing in the world, but I do it.’

  ‘It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship. No further information will be provided on this subject and I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are.’

  On 3 July 2010, Cristiano Ronaldo announces on Facebook and Twitter that he has become a father. The Real number 7 shocks the world with this statement, which comes just a few days after Portugal’s elimination from the South Africa World Cup. It is a complete surprise because no one even knew that Ronaldo was in any kind of long term relationship, let alone expecting.

  The last photos picturing the player with a woman were taken in May, when the paparazzi snapped Ronaldo and Irina Shayk on a luxury cruise near Corsica. But Irina didn’t look pregnant, and she doesn’t seem particularly thrilled about the arrival of CR7’s new offspring. The day after the news goes public around the world, the model writes the following on Facebook and Twitter: ‘Why have you done this? You’ve had a baby with another woman without telling me. You have broken my heart. Thanks for making me cry.’

  But the message is a fake. The Russian’s modelling agency releases a statement to put an end to speculation: ‘Unfortunately certain individuals take it upon themselves to create fake profiles or post fake messages for some reason. Miss Shayk has currently suspended her Twitter account while rumours of this nature are circulating.’

  It’s not the statement that puts an end to speculation so much as the couple’s show of affection, making it clear that the relationship is still intact. After Ronaldo goes public with the news of his son’s arrival, he and Irina are seen in New York together. The footballer spends the trip shopping and relaxing, while his girlfriend enjoys the New York nightlife with a number of other models. They have been seen canoodling in the pool of their Manhattan hotel and dining together at an expensive restaurant. Photos and sources confirm that they are still very much an item and that there don’t seem to be any secrets or misunderstandings between the two.

  And what about the baby? He is in Marina de Vilamoura in the Algarve, being looked after by Ronaldo’s mother, Dolores. His sister Katia, who is spending the summer there, reveals: ‘Cristiano is very, very happy. What father wouldn’t be?’ Regarding the baby, she adds: ‘He has dark eyes and brown hair like Cristiano and he is very well settled – he just eats and sleeps.’

  Portuguese television channel RTP announces that he is called Cristiano Junior, and that at birth he measured 53 centimetres and weighed 4.3 kilograms. He was born on 27 June, two days after his father played with the national team against the Ivory Coast in South Africa. This is undoubtedly all useful information, but what really interests the British tabloids, the celebrity magazines and the Portuguese media is the mystery surrounding the mother. Who is she? Why has she relinquished custody of the child? The conspiracy theories are flowing thick and fast.

  Portuguese daily newspaper Diário de Notícias claims that the baby was conceived artificially the previous year in San Diego, with the help of an American surrogate – just around the time that the footballer was on holiday in California and was seen out celebrating his Real Madrid signing with Paris Hilton at a private party in Los Angeles. The paper claims, Dolores, Katia and Cristiano’s other sister Elma came to the States to deal with the legal proceedings which would allow them to take the baby back to Portugal.

  The tabloid Correio da Manhã says that Cristiano Ronaldo has paid to have a baby, while The Sun claims the player has shelled out no fewer than sixteen million Euros to buy the silence of the mother and ensure that she would give up her right to see the child. That’s just one theory. Other Portuguese media think that Cristiano Junior is the product of a one-night stand and that the young mother wants nothing to do with the baby.

  The soap opera doesn’t end there. Six months later, the Daily Mirror announces that the identity of the woman who gave birth to the Real number 7’s son has been discovered. According to the tabloid, she is a twenty-year-old student from London. It’s a theory which Cristiano’s ex-girlfriend Nereida Gallardo supports in a Spanish TV interview. The model from Mallorca says that the girl contacted her on Facebook months before the birth was announced, claiming that she was expecting Cristiano’s child.

  Months later, the press claim that the girl regrets having given up custody of the child and says she is ready to fight to get him back. Sources who claim to be close to the girl tell the media: ‘She feels as if she has sold her soul. She is living like a millionaire, but she will never be able to tell her friends and family what happened and that makes her feel extremely lonely.’

  But the plot is about to thicken once again. In an interview with The Sun, Katia Aveiro adds to the mystery. ‘There is no woman calling. There is no mother here, there are no phone calls, nothing,’ she says. ‘The mother has died. The baby has no mother. The child is ours. I am not going to comment on how he came into the world, but I can guarantee you that he is my brother’s son, my nephew, our flesh and blood. My mother is now his mother – she is the one who looks after him 24 hours a day.’

  The first photos of little Cristiano, published exclusively in the Portuguese magazine TV Mais, show him in his grandmother’s arms. The baby’s face is deliberately pixelated, but it is possible to make out a child with dark skin tones and similar characteristics to his father. Grandma Dolores is taking care of him at Cristiano’s home in Madrid. On 8 December, she takes him to the Bernabéu to watch his father play for the first time. Ronaldo has already dedicated various goals to his son. But this is a special occasion. In the 50th minute, after scoring Real’s second goal of the night against Auxerre in the Champions League group match, he mimes sucking on a dummy and waves in the direction of his private box. The cameras catch a glimpse of the boy and at that moment Cristiano Junior steals the limelight from his father. All eyes in the stadium are on the baby.

  Shortly afterwards, the Whites’ number 7 breaks his silence over his recent fatherhood in an interview with Real Madrid TV. He admits that becoming a father has changed him: ‘It’s a different type of responsibility. I am still learning. It’s a feeling I can’t easily put into words. Waking up in the morning and seeing someone who is your own flesh and blood is amazing. This is a very special time in my life. You could say that I am feeling very content. I am always happier when things are going well – with my family, the club, my friends …’

  He reveals that he has no problem taking on the role of hands-on father: ‘Of course I change my son’s nappies. It’s not my favourite thing in the world, but I do it.’ He talks about the future, the possibility of more children, marriage, and what he would like his son to do when he grows up: ‘I
would love for him to play football and be my successor, but let’s wait and see. My son will be whoever he wants to be.’ And he says that, although Cristiano Junior usually goes to sleep without any problem, on one occasion when his father was playing a match he cried all day, and they couldn’t get him to calm down and go to sleep until he had seen his daddy score a goal.

  Chapter 23

  Autumn/Winter 2010–11 underwear campaign

  ‘I love doing advertising campaigns.’

  The key elements of ‘brand Ronaldo’ are football, competitiveness, joy, irreverence, and a muscular torso. He’s a global athlete, a photographic face, a versatile product known to a diverse international audience. An icon like Cristiano can earn up to fifteen million Euros a year, thanks to contracts with the likes of Nike, Banco Espírito Santo, Castrol, Clear, Soccerade, EA Sports, Fuji Xerox, Extra Joss, Suzuki, Pepe Jeans and Konami. And a mere 60 million Euros per year for the rights to TV, publicity and shirt sales can generate an immeasurable return on investment for Real Madrid.

  It’s obvious that Cristiano really enjoys filming adverts. Aside from showing off his footballing talent, he loves showing off his body. He is very comfortable in front of the cameras, taking the makeup sessions and long photography shoots in his stride. Whether he has to repeat a pose multiple times or retake a shot, he seems to enjoy playing the role of actor or model. As far as he is concerned, the set is just an extension of the football pitch – somewhere where he strives to be the best. He is putting on a performance the way he does every weekend, investing the same level of professionalism in promoting trainers as he does in scoring a goal.

  His agents at GestiFute are constantly inundated with offers from all directions. They have to turn down almost 90 per cent, either because of conflicts of interest with other brands, or because they aren’t particularly compatible with football. But generally speaking, advertising is a business proposition that seems to be working out very well for him.

  The work began to roll in soon after he arrived at Manchester United. His first big sponsor was the Portuguese Banco Espírito Santo. At the time he was only eighteen, just a promising youngster with trophies and prizes still some way out of reach. But the bank chose him for its campaigns just under a year before Portugal were due to host UEFA Euro 2004. Marketing director Paulo Padrão explained the company’s reasoning at the time: ‘We believe that the best thing about football is the joy of the game, the spectacle it offers. No one represents the art of the game better than Cristiano Ronaldo. He is a symbol of Portuguese youth, an example of the belief that if you have talent and you work hard, you can make it to the top.’

  Wearing the national team number 11 shirt in the advert, the boy from Madeira shoots and shoots, but the goal keeps dodging the ball, until finally he manages to score and the goal topples over. The slogan is ‘va treinando’, meaning, ‘he’s in training’. Since that first campaign, Ronaldo has starred in twelve other adverts for the bank, for both Portuguese and Spanish customers. The theme is always along the lines of competitiveness and a desire to win.

  In a recent campaign in November 2011, he says: ‘If I had doubts, I wouldn’t win as much as I do.’ The advert suggests that Ronaldo takes advantage of every opportunity. He doesn’t think twice, he doesn’t hesitate. ‘Be like Ronaldo. Don’t miss out on taking advantage of a great opportunity,’ says the voiceover. A 2010 advert starts with him playing darts, table tennis and table football, but gradually he starts to do tricks in order to win. ‘I hate losing, even at marbles,’ he says at the end of the clip.

  And the Portuguese bank have shown that a desire to win is vital if you want to get results – whether in business or in the advertising world. The ‘Where am I headed?’ and ‘What do they say about me?’ campaigns were awarded the Ouro prize and the Grande Prémio à Eficácia da Comicação (grand prix for best advertising campaign).

  Competitiveness is a recurring theme, particularly in the adverts Ronaldo films for sports brands. In a Nike campaign, he lines up next to the road to race against a Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 – the fastest car in the world. In an advert for Fuji, he plays tricks with the ball in a bullring while dodging a bull, and is then beaten at his own game by an older and greyer version of himself. In a Castrol oil clip, he kicks the ball around with a man on a motorcycle – who takes off his helmet at the end to reveal he is also Cristiano.

  He competes against Zlatan Ibrahimović in a Nike Joga TV clip presented by Eric Cantona. ‘Football is like fencing. A noble art,’ says the Frenchman, showing Ronaldo a video of Ibra playing tricks with the ball and asking if he can beat the Swede. Cristiano nods. ‘On guard,’ replies Cantona. Cue a montage of the two players dancing across the pitch doing amazing tricks. ‘Who wins? I don’t know,’ concludes Cantona. The same could be said of Cristiano’s impromptu contest with Billy Wingrove, the English football freestyler and star of other Nike Joga Bonita campaigns. Behind-the-scenes footage shows the Portuguese is as good at freestyling as he is at everything else.

  But Cristiano can do tricks with more than just footballs. While Maradona and Messi have played with oranges, trainers and tennis balls, CR7 plays with an ice cube for a Coca-Cola campaign which is to air in China before the 2006 World Cup. Inside a fridge, a little Cristiano on a Coca-Cola can starts to play, kicking the ice cube around, mirroring the action happening on the TV outside. Just as the Cristiano on the TV scores a goal with a scissor-kick, the one in the fridge does the same, sending the ice cube flying out the fridge and landing into a fan’s glass of Coke.

  In an advert for the Portuguese supermarket Modelo, he does some fancy footwork with the ball on an airport runway between suitcases and aeroplanes, ditching his stewardess colleagues and captain’s outfit to have a kickabout with supermarket customers.

  His 2010 campaign for Castrol Edge is an example of how his professional performance serves as a good advertising hook. He is shown driving a car through an arid desert, a snowy town and around a windy mountain pass, explaining that his football career takes him to hot, cold and exhilarating places. But he is prepared for anything, because people expect only the best performance even in extreme conditions – just as he expects the same from his car.

  Many top sportsmen have benefited from emphasising the value of competitiveness and professionalism to optimise commercial opportunities. But for Ronaldo, there has been no shortage of additional ways to boost his global image. He has taken on various modelling assignments and is recognised as a fashion icon. His love of clothes led him to launch his CR7 label in 2007, which included shirts, jeans, belts and shoes.

  But by far the biggest success stories for both Cristiano and his body have been the advertising campaigns he has fronted for big clothing brands. The first is for the London-based clothing brand Pepe Jeans, filmed in Barreiro, a small town in the industrial zone outside Lisbon. The post-apocalyptic landscape is filled with factories, smoke, white sand, wolves and burned-out cars. A young, blonde-streaked Ronaldo bares his yet-to-be muscular chest, carrying off his role with aplomb and receiving high praise from the film crew.

  In Jakarta and Bali he films an ad for Extra Joss drinks, and in the Indonesian version he has another chance to show off his physical assets. Barefoot and bare-chested in front of a traditional temple and surrounded by a circle of locals who are chanting and singing to evoke powerful spirits, Cristiano does tricks with a ball of fire.

  He is bare-chested once again in an advert for Time Force watches, in an attempt to attract Spanish actress Elsa Pataky. As he lies on a bed, she floats down over him from above, whispering that she will take everything he has. He wakes, startled, from the dream – only to check his wrist to ensure she hasn’t taken his designer watch.

  But the footballer’s reputation as a model is really cemented by his 2010-11 campaigns for Armani. Just as he did at Man United, Cristiano replaces David Beckham, who was the face of the underwear brand from 2007 onwards, together with his wife Victoria. It’s the coronation of a new male
sex icon and the advert is a huge success.

  In the black and white ‘housekeeping’ video, Cristiano emerges from his hotel bathroom wearing just his underwear, puts on his jeans and then spends a good 25 seconds searching for his shirt. The maid, who has been surreptitiously watching him, finds the shirt under a cushion but puts it back so that she can watch him for a bit longer.

  According to social media blog Mashable.com, one of the most popular blogs in the world, the advert is the second most watched fashion video on Youtube. It is beaten only by the world premiere of Lady Gaga’s song ‘Bad romance’ at Alexander McQueen’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection catwalk show, the last before his suicide.

  There is no doubt that Cristiano has a global future both on and off the football pitch.

  Chapter 24

  53 goals

  ‘Scoring 50 goals is no mean feat and I’m thrilled with such a great personal achievement. But I’m not completely satisfied because I wanted to win more titles.’

  He is not a centre forward. Mourinho has never thought of him that way and he has almost never made him play in that position. Yet he has managed to set some extraordinary records in Spanish footballing history – 53 goals across three competitions in the 2010-11 season: La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League. It is a figure which seals his place as a shooting machine and top goal-scorer of all the European leagues, winning him the European Golden Shoe award. He has scored 28 with his right foot, eight with his left and four with his head; six from outside the area, eight from the penalty spot and four from direct free kicks.

  On 21 May, the final matchday of the league, it only takes him five minutes to get one past Esteban, the Almería goalkeeper. In the second half he scores his second, kick-starting the celebrations at the Bernabéu. The fans chant his name, while Cristiano raises his arms to the sky and looks towards the VIP box where his family and friends are sitting. He has just scored his 40th league goal in 34 matches.