The Ronaldo Rooney affair

7/1/2006: England 0 – Portugal 0 (Portugal iwins on penalties 3-1)

It seems that the controversy over Cristiano Ronaldo’s role in the sending off of Wayne Rooney is a classic case of what is more important, country or club. Many English players are claiming that Ronaldo’s actions were unsportsmanlike, that they would never do that to a teammate, that they are dishonored to have him as a teammate, and so on and so forth. In this sense, teammate of course refers to one’s club teammate since Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo both play for Manchester United (or at least both do so now but who knows if that will be so in the near future). What are they saying about Rooney’s actions ? Did Rooney deserve to be red carded or should he just have been awarded a yellow ?

I believe that Rooney deserved his punishment, lobbying from Cristiano Ronaldo notwithstanding. He committed a grave fould with bad intentions right in front of the referee and then went about pretending that what he had done would not be punished. If Ronaldo pushed excessively for his punishment, that is no different than what most English players would have done in the same situation. Isn’t that what protecting ones teammates is all about.

The English players are naïve if they think that loyalty to a club is more important than loyalty to one’s country. In the World Cup, as in geopolitics, nationalism is one of the strongest forces which help define and determine the outcome of a struggle. In this sense, it is obvious Ronaldo’s was thinking that country is more important than club. He would take this action now and prepare for whatever consequences it would carry later.

But forget the political force of nationalism and let us get back to the game of football. If any of the English players had hit their penalties with the conviction of Ronaldo, there wouldn’t be this controversy to begin with. Have you ever seen a more coolly struck PK in the World Cup stage ? The fact is, despie being a man down, England played admirably a man down for what appeared to be an eternity and stil had a chance to win. What more do the English players with the gripes expect ?

Let us not forget the incidents of 4 years ago, when South Korea’s Ahn scored to eliminate Italy in a Round of 16 game. Ahn, who played in Italy, immediately found his contract voided by the Italian manager of the team who simply stated his reason as: “I couldn’t justify continuing to employ the player who knocked Italy out of the World Cup.”

Ronaldo will probably never play in England again, destined to suffer the same fate as the South Korean 4 years ago. That will probably be just fine with Rooney and Ronaldo’s other English teammates. While the English go home, Ronaldo and Portugal now have a date with France in the semifinals.