Cristiano Ronaldo remembers Euro 2024: “They said, ‘Ah, it’s getting old.’ And the rest, I did? My past?”

“I cried the day I missed the penalty, even though I thought Oblak made a fantastic save. But let’s interpret that I missed the penalty. The world collapsed. It wasn’t because of that. People didn’t know me. It wasn’t like that at all. It was just because, imagine, the last 27 penalties. [que tinha batido] I scored and the failure at that moment made me feel bad. At that moment, nothing else comes to mind. I felt sad for all the people who came to the stadium, especially for my family, my mother, my children, my girlfriend. Do they really think that I will think that if I miss the penalty that Portugal gives me, everyone will blame me and say that we [Seleção] “Did we really concede a goal because Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty? None of that crossed my mind at the time, I swear to God. I failed because I put too much pressure on myself, and you know me very well, since I was 11 years old. I’ve always put pressure on myself, I’ve always thought: “Cristiano, you are the best player in the world.” I still think like that, and in the end I always put too much pressure on myself, and there are always two sides to the coin. When things are going well, at the top, everything is fine. But when things are going wrong, you feel too much, because, that’s it, I put a lot of pressure on myself. But I like it because I know how to handle this pressure well. But in that moment, when I missed the penalty, I felt bad about myself, about the fans themselves, about my family, and not about the other things that were written and said,” he began by mentioning CR7.

And he added, referring to the moment when he looked up at the stands and saw his mother crying: “These are very special moments. You can’t help but express yourself. These are things you can’t hide, you can’t hide. If you hide those emotions, you’re lying to yourself. You have to be yourself, no matter whether people like you or not. Do you think I’m going to change my lifestyle now? No. Do you really? Do you think that at almost 40 years old, I’m going to change now. Of course not. Either they like me the way I am or they don’t. [No Europeu] They said, “Oh, he’s 39, he’s getting old…” You know why they said that? Because I didn’t score. And the rest of it, I did? My past? I scored 10 goals in the qualifiers. Before the European Championship, I scored two goals against Ireland. But these are things that are part of life. Even if I had scored, none of that would have changed who Cristiano Ronaldo is. People try to talk bad and criticize, but for me it’s normal. [Na minha cabeça] Tomorrow I will play against the team and I will try to score. What if it doesn’t happen? In the next game I will try to score again. That’s who I am. I always try to score goals. It doesn’t matter to me if [o adversário] “This is France or Al-Ettifaq,” he concluded.

There were a lot of opinions about him: “Cristiano is old, why doesn’t the selector take him?” How did it feel to hear such opinions? “There will always be criticism, but people forget one thing: ‘They say Cristiano didn’t score goals, but I did.’ Two. I was the first to show: ‘I failed, but I’m not going to shy away.’ I’m going there and I’m going to hit it. [o penálti]“Even if it fails.” I will always be like that. I will never hide and say that I have cramps, and I understand that. There are players who take penalties because they don’t feel confident, and I respect that. But Cristiano will never do that. Even if I miss the first one, I will be there to win the second one. If I miss the second one, I will be there to score the third one. I am not afraid. But people always like to emphasize and talk about the less positive things. If you ask me if I wanted to score during the game, of course I did. But it didn’t happen, so what do you want me to do? Why cry? My fans love me, and that is my biggest motivation to keep playing football. People love me. No one can take away my brilliance.”