Legends are not born often. But when they do, they leave a trace. They leave a scar in the memory, the vision, the sense of the World. Music has its legends, like Freddie Mercury, Janis Joplin, or Jimi Hendrix. In the world of motion picture, legendary are the shots by Stanley Kubrick, or Steven Spielberg’s frames. And then, when it comes to mass culture and sports, our sport, the one for which we all believe to be the best coaches in the world, legends are born there too.
There are not many legends in football either. You can usually recognize them by one specific goal they scored, maybe when you were not even born. A football legend can leave to posterity a sublime header, an iconic overhead that became the symbol of the famed Panini stickers, or generate a theory like the one of the barrilete còsmico in an Argentina-England match.
Flashback to February 5, 1985, in Sao Pedro, Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira. Among approximately 100000 inhabitants, there are two people whose life just changed, and not only because they have become a mum and a dad. Their names are Maria Dolores dos Santos and José Dinis Aveiro and, on a Winter Tuesday in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, they gave light to a child who’s destined to become a new legend, just like Freddie Mercury, Steven Spielberg or Diego Armando Maradona.
A man worth, among others, 5 Ballon d’Or, 5 Champions League and a European title won with his native Portugal. This man is 33 years old today, and his name rhymes with talent, showmanship, or more simply football: Cristiano Ronaldo.
Today, July 10 2018, Juventus brought back to Italy a Ballon d’Or winner. The last one to play in Serie A had been Kaka in 2007, a title that he won preceding Ronaldo himself, who back in the days was “only” a promising talent playing for Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. The Bianconeri gave Italian football one of the clearest talent of all time, who has been battling with Lionel Messi for the title of world top player in the last 10 years.
Putting aside rivalries and feuds, the whole football movement in Italy should objectively thank Juventus’ President Andrea Agnelli. All calcio fans and supporters should be happy at the prospect of seeing CR7 playing on the Serie A pitches, without for this becoming less anti-juventini, and stopping to genuinely root against the most winning, most hatred club in the Italian football panorama.
Just as Napoli, who ended the most recent Serie A season in the second place, brought back home Carlo Ancelotti, one of the most winning Italian coaches in the last decade, the seven-time title holder Old Lady replied by signing up the iconic Real Madrid striker, who in 2014 conquered the Decima Champions League under the tenure of Carletto himself.
Juve stroke hard and fast. All it took was a trip to Greece, where CR7 was taking some rest after a World Cup where he shone only partially. Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing, it goes without saying, it’s the real deal of this transfer market session. President Agnelli spared no expense, and to secure the services of the most prolific scorer in the history of Champions League (120 goals), as well as the all-time top scorer for Real Madrid (451 goal in 438 caps across 9 seasons), he had to invest some 112 million euro. Just saying. Ronaldo’s salary will be around 30 million euro per season, which corresponds – to give you an idea – to the market value of the whole Frosinone squad, a newly-promoted Serie A club.
The Italian top football division will kick off on August 19, and while Cristiano Ronaldo’s signing is a clear message sent by Juventus to their European top contenders, The Cult of Calcio is ready to tell you the story of CR7’s future deeds on the Italian soil as well.