‘Push-ups in the shower, bathing in ice water at 2 am.’ The qualities of Ronaldo that make him a great footballer

Despite Portugal’s defeat to France in the Euro 2024 football tournament, the team’s manager says no decision has been made on the future of Cristiano Ronaldo’s international career.

The 39-year-old Ronaldo played every minute of both matches against Slovenia and France and appears to have had no lapses in fitness.

I always laugh when I hear things or rumors about Cristiano Ronaldo, how difficult his presence is for the Portugal team because they are all just stories.

I have spent many years together with him in the national team and I have not seen any problems in him. What I do know is that he is not only a professional player himself, but he also tries to help everyone in the team.

If you just observe them, you will know what you need to be successful. But if you are with them then you can learn a lot from them.

He is the captain of the Portugal team and a talkative person who talks a lot but has always set an example on and off the football field.

So when they hit the gym or do physiotherapy before others and prepare their body and mind for the game, they force others to do the same with them.

He would go ahead and participate in such activities and we all would emulate him. I remember all of us taking ice baths at two in the morning just because of them. Along with this, they also help in our physical recovery. But the important thing in all this is that we all used to do this work together. That is, the entire squad would have joined together.

He brings a new spirit to the team and I have always seen it as an opportunity to learn from one of the greatest players in the game. In today’s game you have easy access to information and data about the game and players do their own research on what works for them and what doesn’t.

But Cristiano has the ability to talk to the best experts in the world for this and the good thing about him is that he loves to share this knowledge with others. They talk about everything you ask them because they want to improve you and the team and that creates a good atmosphere in the team.

‘The player who wants to win all the time’

I have known Cristiano for a long time, we have been playing together since we were teenagers. And he always wanted to be the best.

He has always played with people older than him, so when he was only 16, he joined me in the under-17 team. Even then he had a lot of talent and everyone saw his talent and said that there was something special about him.

If we talk about his ability, he is an intelligent player with very strong nerves. I have seen him many times after training at the gym when everyone else had gone home trying to get fitter and fitter.

They always want as much as they want. He has such a competitive personality that he used to tell us that he would do more push-ups than us in the shower after training and he did.

This passion is part of his personality and it is the reason why he is still part of Portugal’s Euro 2024 squad at the age of 39. He is a player who just wants to win and win. Not only are they the best, they want to prove it.

It’s so hard and amazing to think and push yourself to improve because you have to work so hard to get to the level you’ve been at for so many years.

It’s only Cristiano who is mentally impossible to beat, that’s why he’s won so many competitions and achieved so much and what makes him a great player and a good person, I’d say it’s his physicality. There is mental strength.

‘We were training like crazy’

I joined the Portugal team a little late, I was about 31 when I was brought into the team in 2014, but over the next eight years I had a wonderful time with Cristiano.

I have some great memories with him but the best memory is when Portugal won the Euro Cup in 2016.

You may recall how we started the tournament with early draws against Iceland, Austria and Hungary in our group.

After the draw with Hungary, we knew we were in third place. But we were unhappy and at that time not only Cristiano but all of us were telling each other what we should do to perform better.

And because of us being together we made it possible and you wouldn’t believe how hard we trained and worked. We used to play matches with each other even during training.

And the players who were not fed into the matches till then were training like crazy and making sure that they were ready whenever they were called upon to play.

You can only go ahead in any tournament if your entire squad has that mindset and it was a collective mindset.

Our confidence and belief grew as we reached the knock-out stages of the tournament and then in the final we beat France to finish it off.

Even then, our game was not according to our plan, because with Cristiano in the team, there was a sense that we could beat any team, but he was injured earlier.

After that everyone in the team came together and said ‘It’s hard but we can do it. It was very hard but we did it.’

‘Ronaldo just needs the right time to score’

It was a great time and I hope for a similar result for Portugal this time as they have a very good team.

I have seen Cristiano play in Germany so I can say that he can play an important role in helping Portugal win.

In the group stage matches, their game movement has been good, they have been creating good chances or almost getting few chances. I know he sometimes feels better playing and helping others by passing than scoring goals. So it was no surprise to me when he passed to Bruno Fernandes instead of shooting himself for the third goal against Turkey.

He has been involved everywhere in the game, he helps while defending and passing as well. Of course, they want to score themselves, but that moment will come, it’s just a matter of time.

How important is Ronaldo’s recognition of Portugal in the team?

I am often asked how important Cristiano Ronaldo is to Portugal. Maybe it’s because what they’ve achieved is that they’re not just our best players, they’re our best.

He is not only a player of the Portugal team but he is the symbol of Portugal’s flag. Most followed sportsmen in the world who are known by people all over the world.

It was a great experience to be with him in the national squad because we would all flock to him wherever we went. Everyone would be shouting ‘Ronaldo, Ronaldo’. But no one asked all of us and no one cared about us.

Fame has two sides and I’m sure it’s not easy for Cristiano to face it all because he can’t go anywhere but he never let it affect him or us.

I am very happy that he is still part of the Portugal team and is trying to prove himself more. We are lucky that we have great players like him and Pep who have won everything and are guiding the young players because it is very important for them to know it all.

We have potential in the team but we also need the new players to carry forward the values ​​of the old players so that the team atmosphere remains as good as this tournament and beyond.

The most important thing in football is to have a united team that defends or attacks the game as a unit. If you have that passion, that unity and the will to fight, you always have a chance to win.