Cristiano Ronaldo is a fallen star refusing to accept reality

Cristiano Ronaldo has become a ceremonial footballer. The ovation he received when he came on as a late substitute in the thrashing of Switzerland at the Lusail Stadium sounded like that of the return of a conquering hero but in reality, it was that of the crashing to earth of a fallen star.

Cast aside at Manchester United before he engineered his escape, he is now experiencing the same falling feeling with Portugal. Ronaldo may still be Portugal’s captain but after being relegated behind Goncalo Ramos in the pecking order – the hat-trick hero against the Swiss – he is basically the team’s touchline cheerleader. And not always a cheerful one.

The petulance he brought to his last days at Old Trafford has been repeated in Qatar. The strop he threw after being substituted in Portugal’s final group game against South Korea irritated manager Fernando Santos greatly. Santos insisted after the Switzerland game his decision to leave out Ronaldo was tactical rather than disciplinary but either way it was proved emphatically right.

Portugal were a better team without Ronaldo than with him. It looked like a brake had been released without him against the Swiss. The fluency, with Joao Felix and Bernano Silva outstanding, was beguiling.

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Ronaldo’s 20-minute cameo was entirely peripheral to the outcome. When the final whistle went against the Swiss he applauded the crowd and then went off first down the tunnel, leaving his teammates to enjoy the celebrations. They were the ones who had earned the thumping victory after all.

If his marginalisation is hard for Ronaldo to accept, it must be doubly so given the central role his long-time rival Lionel Messi is still enjoying with Argentina. Everything revolves around Messi for Argentina in a way it no longer does for Ronaldo with Portugal.

At 37, this is his last World Cup. It may be the end of his Portugal career too. He will have scripted his dream ending beforehand but it will not have looked like this. One of the all-time greats of the game reduced to the role of not-so-super-sub.