On rare occasions, a player so supremely talented and dynamic can offer up a series of performances so good that they alone transcend that player into greatness, irrespective of the team he's playing for, their performance or the place they finish. Ronaldo, nominally the world's best player, finds himself in the strange position of having very little chance of winning the FIFA World Cup and yet with every opportunity to enter his name into international legendary history. His fellow countryman, Eusebio, found himself in a similar position back during the 60s and if Ronaldo can take heart from anything, it's that Eusebio, in spite of never winning the World Cup, managed to inspire such astounding praise from the press, that he has become a household name even now, almost 50 years after he set English soil alight in 1966. Portugal's mere presence in this tournament is thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo, following a ridiculous Play-Off second leg where he outperformed Zlatan Ibrahimovic by a goal to defeat Sweden 3-2 and take his team to Brazil. All eyes will be on him to replicate such feats in taking Portugal as far as they can possibly go. If he does and in the way we know he can, Ronaldo will find himself an international icon, whether Portugal exit in the Quarter Finals or not.
Betting on being a brilliant brother to Bodhi since 2008 (-1 Asian Handicap). Find me @LiamJJohnson on Twitter where you might find some wonderful pearls of wisdom in a stout cocktail of profanity, football discussion and general musings. Or you might not. Depends how red my eyes are.
