Real Madrid: The five players who should never have been sold in the last 10 years
By Parshva Shah
Cristiano Ronaldo (2009-2018)
Epoch-making, hard-working, world-beating, extraordinary, one of a kind leader, never-say-die attitude, charismatic, elegant, ubiquitous, goal machine, hungry, success-oriented; these are some of the very few adjectives and phrases that describe this man, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Subject to a world record transfer fee at the time in 2009, Real Madrid landed the Portuguese international from Manchester United for a swashbuckling €94 million. Ronaldo arrived amidst fanfare and adulation and his presentation had at least 80,000 attendees at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Cristiano ran amok at Real Madrid, slaughtering opposition defenses and breaking almost every goal-scoring record associated with a Real Madrid player.
What’s more, he scored 50+ goals for six successive seasons. He evolved from a left-winger to a center forward as he completed the ‘maturity’ he had began as a player in his final seasons at the Old Trafford.
Ronaldo was the nucleus of a team that conquered Europe four times in five years, with the last of those coming in his final game as a Real Madrid player.
Bailing out the team from difficult circumstances and winning big games on his own were the ‘prima facies’ of Ronaldo’s tenure at Real Madrid. For instance, scoring a hat-trick in the return leg against Wolfsburg in 2015-16 to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit.
He has also scored most goals in El Clasico than any other Real Madrid player with 18 goals in 30 appearances. He silenced the Camp Nou on numerous occasions, with the highlight in particular being the 2017 Supercopa, where he came off the bench to score an important goal. He celebrated it by taking his shirt off and showing it to the crowd.
Ronaldo was the biggest reason why Real Madrid was once again feared in the UEFA Champions League and scored over a hundred goals in the competitions, ending as the top-scorer six consecutive seasons for Real Madrid.
Scoring 451 times in 438 appearances, Ronaldo left Los Blancos as the club’s all-time highest goal-scorer. He scored 34 hat-tricks and carried forward the no.7 legacy of Raúl.
Fans clamor for his return even to this day. Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid was a love story for the ages, one which unfortunately had to come to an end sooner rather than later. He will go down as unarguably the greatest Real Madrid player ever for his unprecedented bravado.