Cristiano Ronaldo’s red card may bless him

Last Wednesday it was Champions League day. Cristiano Ronaldo was going to debut in this competition as a Juventus player, one day after Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick in Barcelona’s first UCL match of the season.

Hence, unsurprisingly, Ronaldo was extremely driven to prove his worth once again. Unfortunately for him, with less than half an hour on the pitch he was sent off in a controversial decision.

The referee’s decision is definitely questionable and most people do not agree with it. Although, beyond that, what do we see? An extremely competitive individual driven to perform at a top level every time, who turns all his passion into tears after realising his first UCL match as a Bianconero ended too soon.

As expected, this moment led to people mocking and criticising Ronaldo for this situation. However, this is the second stage of a well-known vicious circle:

• 1^st stage: Ronaldo has a setback (bad game, scoreless stint, red card…);
• 2^nd stage: Critics mock him (“he is too old”; “he only scores penalty kicks”…);
• 3^rd stage: Ronaldo, fuelled by the critics, works hard and comes back in style.

This happened time and time again throughout his career, which will be demonstrated by recent examples. When Portuguese people criticised Ronaldo for being too old, not running as fast as before and even not playing very well in the National team, right before he helped Portugal conquer the European Championship in 2016.

Moreover, in the beginning of last season Cristiano also had a red card, although this one had him suspended for 4 games – in contrast to his current 1 game suspension –, which made him a different beast when he came back (at least in the Champions League).

All in all, this red card might prove to be good for the Portuguese star. Successful people come back stronger after a setback, and Ronaldo is no exception.

Fans who react too quickly to a bad moment may have short memory, since they don’t seem to be taking into account what this person has done for his country and for football as a whole. Besides he is also a great inspiration for loads of people, regardless of their vocations.

To sum up, Ronaldo’s haters are doing a great job at motivating him. Thus, as serious football fans, instead of asking for good values and open-minded debates, we probably should be thanking the critics for giving that extra boost to Cristiano which helps him showcase his qualities.

US Open 2018 women’s final: underneath the dust

The US Open 2018 women’s final became popular due to the controversy between the umpire and Serena Williams. Whether this involved sexism or not, it is a whole other discussion which seems should be discussed by everyone, especially those who do not know enough of the sport, if we look at social media.

So, what really happened? Basically, Naomi Osaka was beating Williams fair and square, until the American player was warned and penalised after having done code violations which implied those consequences. In the end, the Japanese player was crowned champion, but what really got media attention was the confrontation between Serena and Carlos Ramos.

Let’s go down to the facts of this situation. Firstly, Carlos Ramos is known for being a stickler to the rules as well as an umpire who is not afraid to impose himself with big tennis personalities (Djokovic, Nadal and Murray).

Secondly, the umpire warned and penalised Serena always according to the rules in this final. Thirdly, Serena made the situation worse by breaking her racket and attacking Ramos verbally, and these actions were entirely her responsibility.

Taking these arguments into account, the conclusion is: Naomi Osaka has beaten Serena Williams fair and square, and she deserves all the credit. Honestly, the rest is just a media circus. Williams made this about sexism, when she started saying “because I am a woman”.

Don’t get me wrong, Serena Williams is nevertheless a great champion and inspiration for women, tennis players and mothers. Still, she is not god-like, she is human. And we humans make mistakes and have bad days.

Regardless of that, we should praise above all Naomi Osaka for her great performance and impeccable attitude. The 20-year-old Japanese player came to her first Grand Slam finals to beat one of the best female tennis players ever.

Naomi kept her cool throughout the whole controversial moment to achieve the trophy which made her the first Japanese tennis player to ever do it. In the ceremony she even said “I’m sorry it had to end like this”, which shows her genuine kindness.

Osaka, who was born to a Haitian father and a Japanese mother, became a role model for Asian tennis players. From now on, there are young Japanese girls dreaming of becoming “the next Naomi”. And these situations, usually increase the amount of people who practice tennis, logically.

To conclude, this last perspective is what should stand out from this event: the fact that a record got broken by a young Naomi Osaka and a new role model appears in the sports scheme of Japan. Won’t this have a much more interesting impact in the future rather than the controversy?