Cristiano Ronaldo left the pitch at the final whistle after Portugal’s 1–0 defeat to Morocco in Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinal and headed straight down the tunnel, weeping. How you viewed that probably depends much on how you see Ronaldo.
On the one hand, of course, it was petulant and self-centered. His own sense of self-pity outweighed any sense that his team, his country, might be feeling disappointment. After he had made such a point of saluting the Portugal fans after the 6–1 win over Switzerland in the round of 16, here perhaps was a truer reflection of where they stand in his priorities. There was no dignity in defeat, no feeling he might go and congratulate the victorious Moroccans, or wish them well for the semifinal—the first African team to reach such a milestone. It was graceless in the extreme.
But on the other hand there was something sad about the spectacle. Ronaldo, now 37, has been one of the greatest players in the world over the past two decades. His powers are waning. He is struggling to accept that he, too, is subject to the process of aging. He has evolved his game as mobility has deserted him, transitioning from willowy winger to dynamic inside forward to old-fashioned center forward. But there is nowhere else for his evolution to go. His explosive pace has left him. His leap is not what it was. He doesn’t even finish with the same regularity he once did.
