The evening in Dublin, the first red card in his career against Portugal, the interview with certain phrases about his wife, the distance from football that counts: one of the strongest footballers ever and a declining phase that he doesn’t want to admit
In Cristiano Ronaldo’s twilight, the champion’s hypertrophied ego navigates between light and darkness, guessing an ending to be revealed between lame provocations and treacherous elbows to Irish full-backs, while the mirror on the wall suggests to him who is the most handsome of them all – and who else if not him? – and the finish line of the 2026 World Cup appears as his Last Dance. And in the meantime, red cards are waved in his face that offend him to the depths of his soul, he ends up under accusation for some sexist phrases about his wife – “who deals with things that a man cannot deal with”, the crazy laughter of Casa Ronaldo – and he signs his signature for a flourish that locks him in All Nassr until the year of grace 2027, when he will be forty-two years old and perhaps he will say enough, not before having pocketed up to by then 200 million per season.