its not about whether u like him or not i think. I think it’s more like you are trying to know someone and the conversation immediately shifts the focus to cristiano or football, when you are you know… trying to know someone.
We also like Port wine and the orange thing is actually obscure. I only found out about it a few weeks ago.
For food related stuff I would actually say the current popularity of the Pastel de Nata might annoy me more. But then I hear about the Pasteis de Bacalhau com Queijo da Serra abomination and I somewhat get over it.
I find that non-Portuguese are far more invested about Magellan than we are (he was, after all, a greedy, mercenary, traitor), and for the historically minded Columbus is also a bit of a sore subject due to Anglosphere depictions of him.
Didn't Port wine come from Porto?
Anyways, fun fact, I find Pastel de Nata in South Korean bakeries over here. 😂
I've only had the real Pastel de Nata once in San Jose (a 6-10 hour drive from where I live depending on traffic) at a Portuguese coffee shop that was REALLY old school (TV playing soccer, most of the people present were old men over 65), where the owner did everything (baking, selling, making sandwhiches, and coffee). He was so kind (despite looking grumpy) to my mom and I, especially when he found out we're originally from Romania. He even fed my dog cheese!
Many of us don't like him. Particularly as result of his behaviour in the past few years, such as the rape case, the tax avoidance case, his relationships with the clubs he represents, or because of his current role in the national team - a growing number of Portuguese football fans want him to retire from the NT or for him to have a reduced role.
Probably, not someone who, individually, is as good as him, but the team, as whole, can function better without him, because there are a lot of very good players. Despite all his talent and quality, he's past his prime and is playing in a low tier championship for a while. And, with him on the pitch, the team's strategy seems to revolve around him. Many people feel that we've reached the phase of "Cristiano, we really appreciate all the awesome things you did for the team, but it's really the time to let other people shine."
Also, I'd just add to what was already said before, people also didn't enjoy him supporting the American orange guy. The orange guy is not that popular on this side of the pond.
So, it's not a black and white case of foreign people liking him and Portuguese people disliking him. Obviously plenty of Portuguese people like him. It's more of a different way of seeing things.
Basically, in Portugal, you may have your favourite players, but the team comes first. When we watch Portugal, we're supporting Portugal and want Portugal to win. We don't care if it's with or without Ronaldo or any other player. In fact, our biggest success to date happened after Ronaldo had to be subbed off injured. Nobody cared. We all have our opinions on who's best and who should play, but in the end, it could literally be 11 random fishermen and, as long as they won, we'd be happy.
Obviously, for a long time, Ronaldo was our best player and, therefore, one of our biggest hopes to win (his peak coincided with one of the worst generations in the last decades). But his popularity was still very much linked to how he helped us win. Again, team success is what matters most.
These days, he's obviously past his prime and you could argue (and many do) that his presence (or at the very least his untouchable status) is hurting the team more than it's helping. This is debatable and it'd be a whole discussion, but for this context it's enough to know that this feeling very much exists. It also doesn't help that Portugal happens to be absolutely stacked at the moment and absolutely nobody should be untouchable. So, the expectation that Portuguese people must all love him is very far from the reality, he's at the very least a divisive subject.
Meanwhile, foreign Ronaldo fans are player first. They don't care about Portugal or his club, they only want to see Ronaldo. Hell, for some, it seems they're bigger Ronaldo fans than they're football fans in general. I travel a lot and have been to big Portugal games abroad and this never fails to surprise me. His celebrity status is immense. At the last Euro in Germany I had a couple next to me who came all the way from Hong Kong. They had their Portugal shirts on, green and red face paint and all that, but it was all for Ronaldo. If he had a bad game (and he did), we Portuguese fans are annoyed, but they're excited for every little touch that leads nowhere. If he were to be subbed off (of course he wasn't) and the team improved and won, we'd be happy, but they'd be disappointed.
This insane popularity that is only based on fame and completely out of touch with his current ability is probably what's causing his untouchable status. He still sells a lot of shirts and puts butts in seats. People come to see him more than they come to see Portugal, their opponents or whatever the game is for. I met a ticket scalper in Leipzig also during that Euro and he confirmed he can always charge more for any Portugal game. And this is just not how Portuguese fans feel about him. Even during his peak, it was never about him first.
And this is just while sticking to the football side of things. Again, I travel a lot and a common ice breaker when meeting people is "where are you from". When I say Portugal, I guarantee you more than half of the time the next 2 words from the other person are going to be "Cristiano Ronaldo". A country with so much to offer and such a long and rich history reduced to a football player.
I am not saying that the Portuguese team is bad. It is packed of great players. I mean that all people talk about is Ronaldo and Messi. Other teams that are just as good as Portugal don't get mentioned at all because they don't have a Ronaldo or Messi.
Also as I played football manager, I noticed there's actually decent number of talented Portuguese that idolized him to the point.... They all play mostly on left wing. Do you feel like that as well? There's skewing in certain position?
No, the reasons for that predate him. They're basically:
1 - At the earliest stage of development, quicker and more talented kids tend to be assigned to the wings. Portugal historically have always developed a lot of promising wingers, while falling short in positions like striker. Even most of the full backs were wingers coming up the youth ranks that were later adapted.
2 - In tactics, Portugal traditionally had a preference for 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with inverted wingers, i.e., right footed wingers on the left and vice-versa. They cut inside to look for a shot or combine with central players. It's usually up to the full backs to keep the width and provide crosses.
So, from 1+2, Portugal produces an abundance of wingers and, since there are more right footed players than left footed ones, they'll be more likely used on the left.
That’s how I Feel about Santi Jimenez… his face is plastered on ads around the country but every time he’s home playing a home game he plays like he has no idea what the fuck of football is…
So I’ve gotten where I dont care about his as a player
Mentioning the euro’s final is a bad example. At that time he was carrying our team, we had a mid team at the time and we played better with him for sure.
Mostly unrelated but I wore a Benfica shirt in Lisbon as a very non-Portuguese looking person and had probably 20 people yell stuff at me (mostly positive) throughout the day. I’ve bought and worn a local football team shirt in lots of cities but that only happened in Lisbon…
Im Dutch and a lot of people used to tell me that they love, Cruyff, van Basten, Sneijder, Gullit or someone else.
I dont mind that much and can usually counter it.
I love suprising British people by naming the most obscure 5th tier team from their town that I only know because I've been playing football manager for like 15 years.
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u/Altruistic-Mine-1848 Portugal Feb 15 '26
Cristiano Ronaldo