Cristiano Ronaldo has experienced a month of incredible highs and lows. He started January after having starred in Real Madrid’s triumph at being crowned world champions at the end of December.
Named the best player in the world weeks later as he won the Ballon d’Or for a third time, Ronaldo let out an eye-opening primal scream while accepting his award.
The Portuguese appeared to have it all. While his superlative-inducing performances may have pointed to him being from a different planet, he is definitely a human being, and humans make mistakes.
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On Saturday, as the clock ticked down against Cordoba, Ronaldo saw a straight red card after kicking defender Edimar during their Primera Liga match. Madrid were 1-1 at the time but won 2-1 thanks to an 88th-minute Gareth Bale penalty goal.
Given the extreme circumstances, a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday will meet to decide his punishment, with speculation that he could receive a 12-game ban if found guilty of excessive aggression.
That particular speculation came from a Catalan newspaper, which doubtless is crossing its fingers that he will be out of football for a long time.
The Madrid supporting media viewed the same situation differently and drew hope from the fact that referee Alejandro Hernandez did not consider the incident worthy of being classed as violent conduct in his post-match report.
That, though, was also because he did not see the contact, others, who did, would be better judges.
Ronaldo took the unusual step of apologising via social media: “I apologise to everyone and especially Edimar for my thoughtless act in the game today.”
Rather than be outright condemned for his fifth red card in five years, Ronaldo has received support from his club with one board member stating: “He’s not a machine.”
Madrid refused to comment immediately after the game but Ronaldo spoke to club president Florentino Perez on the journey back to the capital.
Perez was unhappy with the sending off, but unhappier with the gestures that Ronaldo made towards the crowd as he made his way back to the dressing room.
Those gestures including touching the World Club Cup badge to show off his supremacy, exactly the type of arrogance that Madrid are accused of by their detractors.
‘An intelligent lad’
His coach Carlo Ancelotti also had words with his star player to make sure that he understood what he did was wrong, but while the Portuguese will be given time to reflect, he is also being cut slack because his personal circumstances have not been ideal this year.
Ronaldo has separated from his long-term partner but he has plenty of friends in football.
“Cristiano sets such high standards for himself day in day out,” said Rene Meulensteen, the Manchester United coach who worked with him during his six years in England.
“He pushes himself more than any other player I know in training and in games, where he handles himself very well in the face of aggression. He takes more provocation than any other player and usually rises above it, yet he’s not a robot.
“He’s not a player renowned for disciplinary problems but it’s inevitable that the frustration will sometimes boil over.
“The fact that it makes world news that he was sent off shows how rare it is for him to receive a straight red card because he’s a saint compared to others.”
The Dutch coach, who worked with Ronaldo every day, said: “He’s an intelligent lad who was mature enough to say sorry. He has an incredible number of life experiences behind him for someone so young and I don’t believe what happened at the weekend was the start of a trend, but a one-off incident.
“Maybe it’s good that he has a little time off because that’s what he needs.”
Ronaldo will soon find out just how much time that will be.
Villarreal big on happiness and it shows
Villarreal have scored in their past 24 games, so it was no surprise that they added another in their 1-0 weekend win against neighbours Levante, who are in the relegation zone and need to start increasing their paltry tally of three wins from 20 matches if they are to stay up.
Villarreal – at the other end of the table – have different priorities. Marcelino’s side are in sixth where they finished last season after promotion in 2013. They are in a European spot and are six points clear of Malaga in seventh but have ambitions of Uefa Champions League football next season to add to their Europa League exploits this term.
Villarreal are unbeaten in the league since a 3-1 defeat at home to Valencia at the start of November and qualified from their Europa League group.
Operating on a more prudent budget that is 60 per cent of that four years ago, Villarreal still have to sell their best players and will lose Brazilian defender Gabriel Paulista, 24, to Arsenal today in a £11.3 million (Dh63m) deal.
Tall and quick, Paulista should adapt to English football, and while the Spanish side will lose a player who has improved significantly this season they will gain Arsenal striker Joel Campbell, 22, on loan for the rest of the season.
Costa Rican Campbell joins a club where the Mexican brothers Gio and Jonathan dos Santos are thriving.
Former Barcelona starlet Gio has had injuries but adds a spark to their attack, while attacking midfielder Jonathan is a regular starter. The pair are infectious in the dressing room, where the ambience is positive.
“I’m happy in my second season here,” said Gio, who scored 11 league goals in his first.
“We play attacking football, we have an experienced manager and I’m even happier as my brother is playing here with me. We live together and get on well.”
Dos Santos enjoyed living in England after his childhood at Barcelona but did not enjoy his experience with Tottenham, where he was used scarcely.
As with Diego Forlan and Joan Roman Riquelme a decade ago, Villarreal specialise in catching still young but fading stars and giving their career a boost.
It is a happy club and a winning team, but they have a tough test this Sunday at Barcelona where the Dos Santos brothers first made their name.
Villarreal travel in more than hope, though, for they have lost only one game away from home all season, a record unmatched by any other team.
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