Cristiano Ronaldo's final World Cup ended with a mere whimper, as the Portuguese national team were shut out by Spain 1-0 in the Round of 16, a stark contrast from the jubilation of their late victory against another elite side in Croatia.
Although Ronaldo scored three goals in the tournament and was one of the better players on the team, he suffered the brunt of the criticism, as per usual, with far worse performers like Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Vitinha, and Ruben Dias escaping criticism despite, yet again, being total embarrassments to their country.
But there are a lot of people around the world who are big names in football noticing the same thing and unafraid to engage in the now unpopular art of defending Ronaldo. Former French World Cup champion in 1998 Youri Djorkaeff went particularly hard at the others on Portugal, not only juxtaposing how the Argentina players fight for Lionel Messi to excel but even stating that Ronaldo's own teammates were boycotting him.
Cristiano Ronaldo was crucified by his own teammates
He told RMC Sport, via Liberta Depre, "If you take Cristiano Ronaldo, the team has to play for Cristiano Ronaldo, and that didn’t happen at all. You could see that he was boycotted by his own team. They didn’t support him, didn’t put him in the best conditions. We all know him. He’s always played the same way. What did they (Portugal) expect, that Cristiano would suddenly change? Either you don’t call him up, or you don’t put him on the field. But if you’re going to take him, you have to build the team around him. What I didn’t like about the Portugal national team, despite all the talent it has, was seeing everyone shift the responsibility onto Cristiano. At a certain point, Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes, and the rest also had to step up and take responsibility. You can’t keep waiting for it to always be Cristiano who fixes everything. He’s not the only one who has to make a difference."
It may sound like an outrageous suggestion, but anyone who watched the World Cup probably had the thought cross their mind at one point. And it was jarring to see Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, Unai Simon, and other star players on opponents Spain show Cristiano Ronaldo great respect before and after the game, yet not a single Portuguese player supported Ronaldo verbally or by his side after his last World Cup game.
Portugal have players worse than Ronaldo with far, far bigger egos. There are notorious stat padders like Bruno Fernandes or players who crumble in important games like Dias who have been skating by. Nobody took the responsibility besides Ronado, and Djorkaeff is 100 percent right.
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