Did Ronaldo Put Portugal on the Football Map

This is the man who put Portugal on the sporting world map.

I swear, I'm sincere. It's not personal.

Give it to me. Yeah, this, this is what I mean, this exact phrase that was said, said by two kinds of people, Actually, three kinds of people.

The third says it in good faith. The third is someone who loves him and gets carried away, a Ronaldo fan who gets carried away.

That's understandable, or someone ignorant who didn't know Portugal before, or a liar.

But that's not true. Ronaldo didn't make Portugal famous when it was unknown.

And anyone who tells you that, uh, in short, is lying, because if I look at the context of what's being said, it's— what do you mean by that, that Ronaldo made the world know Portugal in sports?

Do you mean Portuguese clubs— he didn't even play for Portuguese clubs.

Do you mean Portuguese players became famous?

I mean, we made a screen and this lineup we'll put up in a bit.

Ronaldo's first international match in his life was, I think, in 2002, 2003, It was against Kazakhstan, The lineup featured three legends, Legends, legends, I mean, not stars, I mean, it had Luis Figo, Someone in 2000, 2001,

transferred for 60 million euros between Real Madrid and Barcelona, I mean, the transfer was so huge that someone left Madrid, from Barcelona to Madrid for 60 million euros, so cleverly— the most expensive player at the time.

The most expensive player in history, Ballon d'Or, four leagues in a row, or with one in between, two with Madrid, two with Barcelona, I mean, it was huge. Champions League.

Champions League, and captain, and Luis Figo Honestly, the definition is strange, but what can you do, we have to explain it to a generation that might not be around, Look at Rui Costa, Rui Costa, they spent that on you the year before, the year before,

41 million euros, The value of the 41 million— 41 million euros, and he was 30 years old, mind you.

Adjusted for inflation, I think we're talking about 180 million now, and he's 30 years old, Rui Costa, who won the Champions League with Milan, I don't want to know Rui Costa, there's Deco, Deco won the Champions League with Mourinho's Porto and won the Champions League under Rijkaard,

and won the Premier League with Chelsea, These are legends. I'm saying these guys now are legends, so Cristiano doesn't need to know them, Cristiano joined the squad when he was young, Also, look at the lineup, there are players who are not legends, but stars,

like Simão, or goalkeeper Ricardo, or Carvalho, who moved from Porto to Chelsea for 30 million euros, or even Quaresma, and lots of names I don't want to go into, or Pauleta, Possibly a PSG target before the takeover, So these players, they have a presence in the world,

This player is known worldwide, We're talking about Milan, Chelsea, Barcelona, Madrid, What world besides those?

I don't get what he means by that, or if he means more than the players, like the national team, for example, that Ronaldo put Portugal on the football map as a national team, and that's not true, I mean, Portugal's best World Cup finish with Ronaldo was in 2006. They came third.

The semifinals, I mean. They reached the semis against France, lost, came fourth, sorry, They lost to Germany, 3—Schweinsteiger.

Looking at that run, Portugal, of course, had a good finish and made a good run, but they weren't even the world's fourth- best team.

Holland were better, but that's not the context of how they made it through the knockout rounds, Ronaldo himself wasn't that influential in that tournament, I mean, in Portugal's last three matches in that tournament, they didn't score a single goal,

I think they didn't score against Germany, just one goal, Against France, they won 1-0, against England, no goals to none, penalties, with Rooney sent off in the 62nd minute, so they had no impact there at all.

He was already a player, but he hadn't even reached half the level he reached later, And besides, this is a recurring pattern, the idea of nationalizing everything for the benefit of one person. Right.

Like, he used to say, "Uh… Guardiola came to Spain and won the World Cup, went to Germany and won the World Cup, so go to England, yeah…

Those are the superficial, meaningless things people focus on, and the players who came through in Germany and won the 2014 World Cup, he'd only just arrived then, I mean, this project, those kids spent years developing before we got there. It was just a coincidence, nothing more.

Same thing in England, their talent project started in 2011, he was influenced by Barcelona's 2011 team, that's what the founders of their project said, including Southgate, It's not like they had a national team once he left,

which tries to credit everything to one person.

For one scene I saw in Bolivia, uh… The same thing in Portugal with Ronaldo, I mean, all the work that, that was done by the Porto Academy and the Benfica Academy and their staff and the players they produced, why credit it all to Ronaldo?

Or someone else. I mean, it's a collective effort, it's academies, development, scouting talent, and certain training methods, I had a friend, uh, Ahmed Tawfik, who did two very long interviews with the Benfica Academy director and Al Jazeera deputy,

with a lot of details, I mean, it was— It can't be down to one person named Ronaldo, or whatever his name is, or even someone working at the academy having an impact on it that we produced this many talents, so these are attempts that are, uh, honestly, mixed, I mean,

I mean, it's enough that, uh, something where you don't see the man as lacking and try to complete him, If the man were judged by his individual ability and achievements, that already puts him in the top 1% in the history of football players,

Then the— the added factor is that he put Portugal on the map, No, you weren't even aware before he started playing, You don't even watch…

Even if they had a valid argument, I mean, one of the arguments I used to hear about this was, the trophies he won, that's one point, the second point is his continued participation in the World Cup from when Ronaldo first came to prominence in general until he retires now,

Let's not explain.