Snickers Workwear ‘Hero of the Week’: Cristiano Ronaldo

It was never going to be anyone else this week, was it?

The best place to start, I suppose, is the numbers. 66 goals for club and country in 2013 so far, in just 56 games. 31 (yes 31!) goals this season alone, including five hat-tricks. 47 international goals for Portugal, equalling the previous record held by Pauleta, with, you would expect, many more to come. In total, he’s scored 395 goals in his senior career to date and he’s not 29 until next February. In the era of Ronaldo and Messi we have become accustomed to quite ridiculous individual statistics and just like his rival for the best player in the world last year, the numbers totted up by Cristiano Ronaldo in 2013 have been phenomenal, which is perhaps the most appropriate word to describe the man. He’s a freak. And yet, there are those who still tut at the sight of the man because of the flaws he doesn’t even try to disguise. Yes, he can get a bit childish when decisions don’t go his way, he is guilty of simulation from time to time, he’s not exactly selfless on the pitch and his public statements often come across as being a bit arrogant. "Chill, I got this" On the other hand, if he didn’t have character flaws he wouldn’t be human and if anyone is entitled to have a big ego, then it’s Ronaldo. As the man himself once said: "People boo me because I'm rich, good-looking and a great player.” Boom. Ronaldo is never going to earn universal adulation from the footballing public but he has long since got to the stage where he has gained universal admiration and respect. He’s also long since gone past the stage where people would question his big-game temperament and the RTE panel would dedicate nearly an entire evening’s coverage to hammering his character. Like many football fans, the RTE panel have now reached the stage where they don’t necessarily want to like Ronaldo, but they have to because he’s good. As Wes Mantooth once said to Ron Burgundy: “At the bottom of my gut, with every inch of me, I plain, straight hate you. But dammit, do I respect you!” Ronaldo’s ascent to greatness might be a surprise to some but not to the man himself. For practically his entire career, he has spoken of his desire to become the greatest player in the world as if it was a matter of inevitability and he has spent the entire time since in a relentless pursuit of that goal. As his recent underwear ads illustrated (we only glanced, honest), Ronaldo is the supreme athlete and has few peers in world sport. He is blessed with explosive pace and power, great upper and lower body (witness him pointing to his thigh after a ridiculous long-range goal below) strength, an unbelievable leap and incredibly nimble feet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIEAyc7C5BM Some of those traits he was blessed with, but he worked damn hard to develop the others to the maximum and he is bearing the fruits of those labours now. Strange though it sounds, Ronaldo is not a natural footballer in that you’ll rarely see him thread an eye of the needle pass through a defence or try and curl an effort into the top corner; everything is done at maximum pace and maximum power with precious little subtlety involved and the shots that were going into Row Z earlier in his career are nestling in the top corner now. He’s at his peak as a footballer now but so supremely conditioned is he – how often has he been injured and how many games does he miss? – that it’s easy to see him maintaining that level for years to come. Ronaldo receiving his second Ballon D’Or award in a couple of months’ time should be a no-brainer. And it more than likely won’t be his last either. Ronaldo receiving his second Ballon D’Or award in a couple of months’ time should be a no-brainer. And, more than likely, it won’t be the last time the Snickers Workwear Hero of the Week wins the prestigious award.