Cristiano Ronaldo’s minor defies the odds when he closes the goal record

Cristiano Ronaldo has told us who he is through his body. His personal creation is still perfect for the 36-year-old: that incredibly tight waist and straight back, the abdominal muscles of a realistic socialist statue, the jump of a basketball star, the clumsy look of a boy singer and the heart of an ultramarathoner. The pace of this will hardly increase on Saturday when the Portuguese champion will face Germany in the 2020 Euro Cup with Germany. God made Lionel Messi a football rival, but Ronaldo is proud to have made himself.

The odds piled up against Ronaldo when he was born on the island of Madeira, the poor periphery of the poor suburbs of Portugal. The mother wanted to have an abortion, but Portuguese law did not allow her in 1985. His father, a veteran of the Angolan war, was “almost drunk every day,” Ronaldo later recalled. He took an ongoing need to prove the right of children not to want to exist, theorizes a biographer Jan-Cees Butter.

A home teenager at the Sporting Academy in Lisbon, he was teased for his Madeira accent. At the age of 18, his brilliance took him to England and Manchester United. A year later, Portugal lost the 2004 Euro Cup final to Greece, but by then they were already rebuilding themselves.

He realized that he was smart enough to study his game and that his solitary tricks – taking a step back – would not make him the best player in the world. He couldn’t perform well, cope or take free kicks. He taught himself these skills, and learned about the repertoire of fints through daily repetitions.

He was a slim sprinter, didn’t look focused on his long career, but through obsessive training – he can do 142 sessions in 45 seconds – he penetrated his body into the muscle. Even on vacation, he’s constantly on the move. Every time he suspects that his ice baths and instant glow are in the company of amateurs, his teammates are terrified of professionalism.

He became a role model for the Portuguese generation who emigrated after the financial crisis, said Raquel Vaz-Pinto, a political scientist at the Portuguese Institute for International Relations and Security. He defined his message as: “If you have talent and ambition, if you sacrifice a lot, you will succeed.”

He did it again in 2014. He warned of chronic damage to his left knee, turning himself from all converters into a scoring center-forward and usually taking a maximum touch before shooting. He leaves the defense to teammates, in addition to his personal drama.

In the Euro 2016 final, after playing the most important award ever in Portugal, he was injured after 25 minutes, and then coached the coach as if the coach did not exist. Portugal beat France in extra time, and in a speech to the starting line-up Ronaldo presented the trophy mainly as a personal event: “This was the award I was still missing in my career. Thanks to you I got the award.”

He has won the Golden Ball for the best player in the world five times, compared to Messi’s six. The argument about what’s better is as silly as discussing whether Michelangelo surpasses Leonardo. The personal duel of the two players improved both.

“Messi was good for Ronaldo and Ronaldo was good for Messi,” Kylian Mbappé said. The young French striker, who is the best player of the new generation, grew up with Ronaldo’s posters in his bedroom, and believes he is none for the man.

“If you say you’re going to do better than them, it’s beyond yourself or your determination. There’s a lack of awareness. These players are unique.” Mbappé said in an interview with Esquire this spring.

Messi and Ronaldo are one of the largest cohorts to challenge old age with improved professionalism, nutrition and health care: tennis stars Roger Federer and Serena Williams are 39 years old, and Tom Brady won the 43-year-old Super Bowl this year.

Ronaldo’s strength is not a problem: every failure is a personal insult, when each teammate has not given him tragedy. He is the same perfectionist off the field: he helped his brother Hugo get rid of drugs and quietly donates to charities. Three of her four children were born to be surrogate mothers who are not involved in the education of their children, as if a single partner did not meet parental standards.

However, for all his 148 million Facebook followers, most of them human, Ronaldo’s achievements have not made him a beloved outside of Portugal. Inevitably, it seems to be the mechanical brilliance of demand. Opposing fans shouted “Messi!” They make fun of him with their songs, and on Tuesday the Hungarian crowd tried homophobic abuse. Undaunted, he scored two goals in a 3-0 win.

At the press conference before the match, he boldly cleaned up billions in Coca-Cola’s share price removing two bottles of Coke placed in front and praising the water instead.

Ronaldo has now scored 106 goals in 176 international matches. When he led a strong Portuguese team five years ago, Ali Daei of Iran is closing the 109th international record. It doesn’t seem to be over.