SOME all-time greats of the beautiful game have rocked up in Paisley for one reason or another, to play, to train or just to watch the local team, over the years.
The denizens of Scotland’s largest town are, having seen Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit, George Best, Kazimierz Deyna, Kenny Dalglish, Michel Platini, Johnny Rep, Riyad Mahrez and Mark Yardley in their time, quite accustomed to soccer legends being in their midst.
The arrival of one Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro in Renfrewshire today, though, still caused quite the stir.
In fact, Paisley went CR7 crazy for a few hours.
The former Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus forward joined his Portugal team mates for a light training session at the SMiSA Stadium tonight ahead of their Nations League encounter with Scotland tomorrow evening.
It is fair to say that word had got around.
With the kids off school for the October holidays, a crowd of several hundred gathered outside the ground hoping to catch a glimpse of, get an autograph from or grab a picture with the world-famous visitor long before his scheduled arrival.
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They climbed up walls, trees and lampposts. They stuck their heads through fence railings. They held up smart phones on the end of selfie sticks. When their target trapped at long last, a deafening cheer rang out. One hopeful local cried out, ‘Ho! Ronaldo! Can I get yer tap!’
It was, with an unseasonably warm sun bathing the Premiership club’s hallowed turf, far more Faro than Ferguslie Park and it possibly put the five-time Ballon d’Or and Champions League winner in a good mood.
Ronaldo, who had been given a similar reception when he checked into Cameron House Hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond last night, obligingly stopped and satisfied the demands of his adoring Scottish fanbase after disembarking from the team bus in the car park.
The schoolboys and girls who had waited for hours to see their hero, then, were not left disappointed. Is he the GOAT? None of the Buddies who enjoyed a fleeting brush with the global football superstar today would listen if you tried to tell them it was Pele, Maradona or Messi.
They have St Mirren chief executive Keith Lasley to thank for a day they will remember for the rest of their lives. He played with Portugal manager Roberto Martinez for a season at Motherwell early in his career and offered his old team mate use of the venue when their respective nations were drawn to face each other.
Martinez, who spent six years in charge of Belgium before he took up his current role last year, stressed that he does not find the circus which follows his captain wherever he goes in the slightest bit irksome. He insisted that he welcomes and revels in the attention.
“There are two aspects that I manage,” he said. “The Cristiano Ronaldo that is trying to work hard to help the team to win tomorrow.
“Then, when you arrive in a stadium, in a place like this, I think you get to know the iconic figure and the career of a player that is unique. There is not another player with more than 200 caps at international level. It's an example, the number of goals that he scored, the trophies that he achieved.
“So I think for me it's very easy to manage a player that can help the team to win tomorrow. All the rest is something for all of us to enjoy because it's a unique case and I think we can all learn from being close to him.”
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Martinez, whose wife Beth hails from Scotland, knows just how demanding playing two away games in the space of four days will be for the eighth placed team in the current FIFA World Rankings. His side were given a scare by their opponents in Lisbon last month before prevailing 2-1 thanks to a late goal from their talisman. He is not taking another victory for granted.
“I think the age of a player doesn't come to play,” he said. “Ronaldo doesn't work as a 39-year-old player and he certainly doesn't play as a 39-year-old player. We are assessing every player and how they feel. But Cristiano has been working really well in this camp. “I think the difficulty of playing two games away from home is more about how can you prepare between the two games. How can you recover with the players? I feel that we have got 26 players. That was the decision we could use. “We will have a team to start the game, a team to finish the game. And then even another group of players that can come in in the second game. So I am confident that we can carry on adding information. “But in terms of Cristiano, I have no doubt that he can be involved in the second game after 60 minutes [against Poland at the weekend]. I don't know if he can start or if he can finish the game. But he can certainly be involved as he showed in the last camp.” Scotland fans will doubtless enjoy watching Cristiano Ronaldo in action in the League A Group 1 fixture in Mount Florida tomorrow evening every bit as much as the residents of Paisley savoured seeing the all-time football great grace their town with his presence today.
