Defiant Cristiano Ronaldo Rebelling Against an Approaching Future at Real Madrid

That defiant streak; there it was again. 

It was early evening at Riazor, and Real Madrid were deflated. Against Deportivo La Coruna, Cristiano Ronaldo had led them to victory with an early assault, but it hadn’t mattered. At the same time, at the other end of the country in Granada, Luis Suarez had figuratively gone punch-for-punch with the Portuguese, effectively clinching the league title for Barcelona before half-time had arrived at each site. 

So when Madrid resurfaced after the break, there was no Ronaldo. There was no point, after all, but still it was unusual, because as a rule Ronaldo doesn’t get taken off. He plays. Every minute. End of conversation. 

As such, in the aftermath and amid the deflation, he was quizzed on whether something was wrong. Was everything OK?

“Didn’t you see the game?” he responded, per the Guardian’s Sid Lowe. “Did I not look alright to you?”

He had a point. 

In the seventh minute at Riazor, Ronaldo had swept home Madrid’s opener; in the 25th, he’d headed home the second; in the 29th, he’d hit the post with the goalkeeper beaten; in the 34th, he’d smashed a left-footed strike off the bar. 

Alright? Better than alright. 

From Ronaldo, this was a line and a performance that neatly encapsulated the way in which he’s rebelled this season. It hasn’t been done in a troublesome way, but there’s been a defiance to it, a rebellion against time, perceptions and the inevitable. 

In La Coruna, he signed off on a league campaign with a flourish, all of it still there: the power, the explosion, the savvy, the relentlessness, the appetite. Five months earlier, the sensations had suggested he wouldn’t still be doing all of this, not …

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