Out of the Blue

“It’s out of the blue” is the reaction of many football pundits and enthusiasts at the end of Euro-2016 when Portugal football team wrote a historic page for their nation. Winning a euro world championship is a big thing, it’s a grand slam of footballing world. No matter how experienced or young & inexperienced you are, no matter you are an underdog or a world beater, entering the final and winning it, speaks volume. Greece did it in 2004 when they beat Portugal in Portugal. This year Portugal repeated the same story, but this time in their favor beating the host France at France.

Interestingly, the classy shots and one man shows were missing. Few footballing brains labelled it as a boring tournament, a tournament one should forget early. But should that matter at the grand stage? No it shouldn’t, because football is a team game and not an individual’s property. Definitely it creates heroes, but the glory is of the nation or the club. Everyone want to see ‘out of the world’ skills and goal scoring feasts at this stage, however people only remember the winners. The famous quote – ‘Individuals wins you matches, but a team wins you tournament’ stood tall during the final of Euro-2016. Portugal was the team that stood till the end, gasped their last breath, kept their nerves and nailed it. Taking nothing away from the French team, they fought hard, attacked fiercely, trying to melt the post in the search of glory, but tall that went in vain. On the other hand, Portugal, missing their start player, three times Ballon-d-Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo within 30 minutes didn’t stop them from winning the final. That’s why football is unpredictable and a treat to watch. This year, in the English Premier League, Leister City won the league unexpectedly and emerged as heroes between the great clubs like Man U, Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea.       

Ronaldo on the day didn’t have his luck as a player, for that matter in Euro-2016 we didn’t see the Ronaldo we are used to (except against Hungary and Wales). He was the integral part of Champions league win for Los Blancos this year against Athletico Madrid, but for his country he wasn’t available as a player after 30 minutes. But when you breathe football, live it and have an unmatched desire to win something for your country, you can’t sit calmly. Exactly same happened with Cristiano Ronaldo and we saw him alongside Portugal’s coach as if he was the assistant coach for a short, but important, period for Portugal. We saw Ronaldo cheering up the players, giving them hope and giving them the belief of doing something that Portugal must have done 12 years ago. That agony of coming so close and losing it was familiar for Ronaldo who was then 19 years of age.

Past is past they say and it turned out true for Portugese fans, players and every single one that has believed in Portugal. The 109^th minute saw that magic, the magic of Edger. Edger will not be going to forget this sooner. Swansea might have dropped him as a player, but Portugal and Ronaldo knew what he can do. We saw this during the penalty shootout, when Ronaldo backed edger to take penalty for Portugal and we saw that same belief in the final. This win would be special for CR7 as he added something he was longing, since ages, to his unbelievable accolades. It would be something different for Portugal as a team. 

Portugal will now have that self-belief of winning a silverware without Ronaldo, most importantly as a team. The team spirit for Portugal will get an unprecedented boost after this win. We might see Portugal rising through the ashes and top teams will see them as a challenge.For the time being it is all celebration time for Portugal. 12 years from 2004, the wait is now finally over. The Portugal fans can now look forward for more, they can now look forward for more Figo’s and Ronaldo’s after this win. There is no question that Ronaldo has become a historic player for Portugal as he gifted the nation the gold as a captain.