Cristiano Ronaldo’s conduct in Portugal’s Euro 2024 round of 16 win over Slovenia last night has been described as “embarrassing” and “out of order” by former Liverpool and Germany midfielder Dietmar Hamann.
Ronaldo, who cut a frustrated figure throughout the game in Frankfurt, burst into tears after seeing his penalty brilliantly saved by Jan Oblak in the first half of extra-time with the game ending 0-0 after 120 minutes.
The 39-year-old did atone for his earlier mis by scoring in the shoot-out as Portugal progressed 3-0 on spot-kicks but Hamann was still unimpressed by his antics.
Speaking on Irish TV station RTE, he said: “Thirty-nine-year-old plays 120 minutes, he misses a penalty and I’ve got to say, I bought into all that ‘Ronaldo has turned into a team player because he needs the team more than he used to’. I bought into that nonsense as well, but I think he showed his true colours again tonight.
“Missing the penalty, he starts crying on the pitch, he starts crying at half-time in extra-time. And I’m thinking ‘it’s all about you’.
“There’s a squad of 26 players, there’s 20 staff, there’s 30 or 40,000 fans in there, it’s not about you.
“You try to be neutral, but I was cheering Slovenia on because I thought the reaction was embarrassing, I thought it was out of order.
“I’ve never seen anything like it, because once you show emotions, once you get emotional, it’s the end of it.
“So that was the point where the manager had to say, ‘you’ve got to come off because you’re not in the right frame of mind to carry on playing’.”
Cristiano Ronaldo’s penalty was SAVED 😲#BBCEuros #Euro2024 #PORSVN pic.twitter.com/1qAM6RUoBW
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 1, 2024
Hamann did give the Al-Nassr striker praise for gathering himself to take a penalty in the shoot-out, adding: “Credit to him he took the first penalty and he took it well, it was a very good penalty, but as I said I bought into all that ‘Ronaldo’s turned into a team player’, it’s absolute nonsense.
“All he thinks about is himself.
“He scores the penalty and apologises to the fans, he doesn’t need to apologise. He will start the next game but I can’t see any other outcome than a France win.”
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Portugal coach Roberto Martinez praised his captain afterwards and claimed it was a “victory for unity”.
The former Belgium boss said: “Ronaldo missed a penalty and then was decisive when he started the penalty shoot-out, he paved the way.
“It was a victory for unity, from the dressing room and Cristiano is our captain and he showed that in life and in football there are difficult moments and we can’t give up, we have to keep going and it was a demonstration of what to do when things aren’t going well.”
