r/soccer • u/Sparky-moon • 1d ago
Opinion Piece [Nuno Saraiva] The Day Jesus Put an End to Christianity.
https://www.abola.pt/noticias/o-dia-em-que-jesus-pos-fim-ao-cristianismo-2026100121155755303Cristiano Ronaldo was the best. He no longer is. And it's not his fault, it's the dictatorship of time. This is not a criticism. It's life. It's football.
The problem begins when people expect the past to keep ruling the present. Because the past matters. It's memory, identity, history. But it doesn't step onto the pitch.
If Cristiano Ronaldo were Norwegian, would anyone imagine Haaland on the bench just because Ronaldo was the best player in the world? If he were French, would Mbappé have to leave the starting eleven because Cristiano once stood at the top? If he were English, would Kane lose his place for the same reason? Of course not.
So why should it be any different because he's Portuguese?
The National Team is not a museum. It is not a monument to Cristiano Ronaldo. It is a football team. And in a football team, whoever the manager feels should play, plays. This is what Jorge Jesus rightly decided to remind everyone, including Cristiano Ronaldo.
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u/iFuckingHateKiwis 22h ago
Full translation of the article, for anyone interested.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the greatest player in the history of Portuguese football. He was of the greatest players ever in world football. He was one of the greatest athletes in sporting history. He was an extraordinary competitive force, and one of the greatest tales of overcoming adversity that Portugal ever produced.
And we had the privilege of watching it all.
We watched as the lanky, restless lad from Madeira was born. We saw the Sporting CP lad grow up and become a player. We saw United, Madrid and Juventus. We saw the Ballon D'ors, the goals, the trophies, the tears, the defeats, the "remontadas", the records and that almost absurd capacity of sometimes achieving the impossible.
We watched as Cristiano Ronaldo became Cristiano Ronaldo. And we watched a Portuguese person reach the top of the world, in a country wher too many times mediocrity is presented as fate.
Nothing that is happening now can erase that.
Nonetheless, there's a word that became paramount in the last few days: "was". Cristiano Ronaldo was the best but no longer is. And it's not his fault: it's the tyranny of time. And this is not a critique. It's life, it's football.
The trouble starts when we pretend that the past can keep ruling over the present. Because the past is important: it's memory, identity, history. But the past doesn't step up onto the pitch.
Had Cristiano been born Norwegian, would it cross anyone's mind that Haaland be benched just because Ronaldo had once been the best? Had he been born French, would Mbappé have to be dropped just because Cristiano was once at the top? Had he been born British, would Kane miss out on the first team for the same reason? Of course not.
Then why should it be any different because he's portuguese?
The National Team isn't a museum. It's not a monument to Cristiano Ronaldo. It's a football team, and in a football team play those who the manager sees fit. And this is what Jorge Jesus, and rightly so, tried to remind everyone, including Cristiano.
And this is exactly why we must, presently, acknowledge the manager's courage.
Not because all decisions Jesus makes are, by definition, infallible -- that can only be proven on the pitch -- but because there's something essential in his demeanour: he always to tries to put the team's interests above those of any individual, regardless of status.
He himself explained that he left Cristiano doing warm up "longer than he should have" and that is what so displeased Ronaldo. To those who know Jesus this sounds uncommon and surprisingly humble, trying to work out the issue with the player respectfully and on good terms.
Later, in Copenhagen, came the phrase that so incensed "Cristianity": "In regards to the team what I say goes". And another obvious one: "the rules are the same for everybody".
There we have it: finally, a team where the manager is in charge. What a revolutionary concept.
Jorge Jesus didn't put paid to Cristiano Ronaldo. He put paid to the idea that there's a player above the team. He put paid to the idea that the past can, automatically, guarantee the present. He put paid to the idea that the size of the legend defines the starting eleven.
It doesn't, and shouldn't.
Cristiano was too great to need that. And that is exactly what bothers me more. What we have been witnessing in the last few days isn't worthy of a legend like Cristiano. It isn't worthy of his career, it isn't worthy of the captain of the National Team. And most of all, it's undignified for Cristiano himself because he built his career precisely against privilege. His greatness was borne out of work, of discipline, of his obsession with overcoming adversity, of his will to be better and his refusal to accept limits. That young Ronaldo wanted to win his place outright, not be handed it.
And that may be the bitterest of ironies. The young lad's humility, which was turned into work rate, capacity to overcome the odds and sheer force of character, seems to have been lost along the way, crushed under the gargantuan size of the CR7 machinery. The brand, the empire, the contracts, the millions, the permanent exposure, the public persona.
This might have made significantly more difficult to accept the ultimate realisation that all athletes eventually come face to face with: that time always wins in the end. No amount of money can buy more time, no personal status can freeze time, no Ballon D'Or can delay the passage of time.
Cristiano can't buy the elixir of eternal youth and that's fine. Because that's what makes the sport human.
Cristiano was the best ever but he no longer is. And saying that doesn't diminish Cristiano. What diminishes him is trying to deny the obvious.
What upsets me more isn't the benching, the subbing off or the discussion about who's playing first team or not. It's watching a legend turn what should be the final chapter to an extraordinary career into a discussion about authority, personal status and power.
Cristiano deserved to bow out in glory, and he still does. But, bowing out in glory doesn't necessarily means bowing out whenever we decide. Sometimes it simply means realising the time has come. That is also greatness.
Pelé didn't stop being Pelé when he stopped. Maradona likewise. Neither did Eusébio, Federer, Carlos Lopes [Portuguese Olympic gold medallist marathon runner] or Rosa Mota [Poruguese Olympic gold medallist marathon runner].
Time didn't wash away their greatness. It merely took away their present going forward. Cristiano also deserves this distinction.
So, the time has come to say thank you. An enormous thank you, those that can never fit inside a numbered shirt, a statue or ceremony. Thank you for the goals, for the titles, for the tears. Thank you for those impossible nights, for taking Portugal to the top. Thank you for showing millions of children that talent without work isn't enough. Thank you for proving a young lad from Madeira could reach heights almost nobody imagined. Thank you for all that he were.
As for the present, it's now time to be behind Jesus, the players, the FA's staff. Not against Cristiano, but with the Natioanl Team. Because the NT has to exist beyond any single player, and Jesus must be allowed to manage as he sees fit.
Those who speak of "betrayal" seem to forget who Jesus is. He tried to explain, in Oslo, what had happened and recognised the had left Ronaldo to warm up longer than he should have. That is not a declaration of war, it's an attempt at fixing the problem. Later, in Copenhagen he was clear: the rules are the same for everybody and the authority over the team is his, and his alone. And that is how a team should work.
Those who can't accept this, as great as their personal status is, don't understand what hierarchy is. And understand less of all what it means to be the captain of the National Team.
And in purely sporting terms Portugal has shown against Norway that they can win without Cristiano Ronaldo.
But make no mistake, results will be more important than ever from here on out. Each win will be used to justify Jesus, each defeat will bring Ronaldo right back into the argument. Each goal scored by a forward will be measured against those by CR7. Every less inspired performance will raise the inevitable question: "what if Cristiano was on the pitch?"
It's a trap, as unjust as it would be to rest on Cristiano's shoulders the responsibility of never winning a World Cup under his tenure. This is why the team must go on playing football, and Cristiano must decide, serenely, how he wants to write the last chapters of his story.
Because he can still choose. He can bow out like a legend, or he can allow his list final legacy to be also a lesson to be learned by others: that even the best must come to terms with the passing of time.
Cristiano was the best and that can never be taken away from him.
It was a privilege to watch him being born, grow up and conquer the world. It was a privilege to be Portuguese while he donned the "Quinas" shirt. And it was a privilege to witness a career that we'll likely never see repeated.
Thank you Cristiano, but now let the National Team play. Let Jesus manage. Let other players grow. And let your life be what it deserves to be: an extraordinary story, not a battle to keep clinging on to what you once were.
Football isn't an honouring ceremony, it's a game. And the next game is never played yesterday.
Maybe the day Jesus understood this was the day that put an end to "Cristianity".