SUMMARY
- Cristiano Ronaldo has won 5 Ballon d'Ors and two 2 Best FIFA Men's Player Awards.
- However, even a great player like Cristiano Ronaldo has had his fair share of humiliation.
Cristiano Ronaldo has cemented his place as one of the greatest players ever. The Portuguese player has shown excellent resilience and determination to overcome adversities. His elite mentality and training regime have put CR7 on the pinnacle of the soccer world. Cristiano’s extraterrestrial goal-scoring record has earned him many accolades and some of his goals are a striker’s dream.
🚨 Cristiano Ronaldo with the Diego Maradona top scorer of the year award! pic.twitter.com/qMP7T9pgxv
— TC (@totalcristiano) January 19, 2024
His illustrious career has seen him win some of the soccer world’s most prestigious awards. Cristiano Ronaldo has won 5 Ballon d’Ors and two 2 Best FIFA Men’s Player Awards. However, even a great player like Cristiano Ronaldo has had his fair share of humiliation. Be it the FIFA World Cup 2022 Quarter Final loss against Morocco or the loss to Bayern in the 2011/12 Champions League, many such losses have left CR7 devastated on the pitch.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s 5 biggest humiliations on the soccer pitch
1) CR7’s red card in a 2-1 loss to Atletico Madrid in the CDR 2014 final
‘Los Colchoneros’ beat their cross-city rivals Real Madrid to clinch the 10th Copa Del Rey in the club’s history. The victory was significant in many senses. The 2014 Copa Del Rey triumph was the first Copa Del Rey title for Atleti since 1996. The match also marked the first Madrid Derby in a whopping 26 games where Atletico has prevailed over ‘Los Blancos’.
Cristiano Ronaldo had a forgetful night in the final. Besides, being on the losing side in the final, he also received a straight red card in the 113th minute. The referee had to force CR7 out of the pitch when the Portuguese kicked Atleti Captain Gabi in the face.
Though Cristiano gave his team the lead in the 14th minute, Atletico Madrid came back with goals from Diego Costa and Juan Miranda. Real Madrid’s fans’ sadness was compounded when Cristiano joined his coach Jose Mourinho, as both were sent off in the game.
2) Cristiano’s love affair with the bench in 2022
The Portuguese player was consistently benched throughout the year 2022. And what is more humiliating is that his coaches had benched CR7 in some very important games in the year. Cristiano was a substitute when Manchester City routed Cristiano’s Manchester United team 6-3 on October 2, 2023, in a Premier League fixture. Erling Haaland who, was playing his first-ever Manchester derby scored a hat trick to award his team three points.
Cristiano was amongst the substitutes in Portugal’s R16 win against Switzerland in the R16 match in the FIFA World Cup 2022. Portugal won the game 6-1 to advance to the World Cup quarter-finals. Cristiano Ronaldo could only feature in the 73rd minute and to top it off his replacement, Goncalo Ramos scored a hattrick in his World Cup debut.
Erik ten Hag had been embroiled in a feud with Cristiano. The Dutch tactician consistently benched the Portuguese for games throughout the beginning of the 22/23 PL season. Cristiano Ronaldo in frustration staged some walk-outs in games where he was named a substitute. Cristiano’s discontent ultimately led Manchester United to terminate his contract in November 2022.
3) CR7’s Penalty miss in the UCL 2011/12 Semi Final against Bayern Munich
The 2nd leg of the Semi-Final tie between Real Madrid and FC Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League 2011/12 was a very interesting one. Real Madrid won the match in the 2nd Leg 2-1 but consequentially aggregate score became 3-3. The penalty shootout after the game had to decide the finalist of that edition’s Champions League.
Cristiano Ronaldo showed his clutch skills once more as he scored both of the Real Madrid goals to put his team ahead in the overall aggregate score. However, Bayern’s Arjen Robben scored a penalty in the 27th minute to tie the aggregate score. CR7’s heroics in normal time were overshadowed by his penalty miss in the shootout.
Cristiano Ronaldo to fans after the 2012 penalty miss vs Bayern: “I owe you a Champions League”.
He went on to win it 4 times with Real Madrid. He has promised UCL to the Juventus fans, he will give his best. All he needs are decent players to back him up. Hope for the best. pic.twitter.com/Sj6s0eVddL
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) August 8, 2020
Cristiano’s penalty failed to find the back of the net as the record Bundesliga Champions advanced to the finals. Sergio and Kaka were the other Real Madrid players who missed their penalty. A devastated Cristiano Ronaldo sunk to his knees as ‘Los Blancos’ ended its European campaign for the 2011/12 season.
4) The frustrating 5-0 loss to FC Barcelona
The Catalan team completely tore apart arch-rivals Real Madrid when the two giants collided in a La Liga 2010/11 game. The match held at Barca’s iconic home, Camp Nou featured an excellent display of the Catalan team’s Tiki-Taka soccer. FC Barcelona played quick and intelligent soccer, with the players taking fewer touches and passing the ball meticulously.
The game looks very one-sided, as far as the stats are concerned. FC Barcelona took 15 shots of which 6 of them were on target as opposed to Real Madrid’s 2 shots on target from a total of 6.
Cristiano Ronaldo and his team looked bamboozled by FC Barcelona’s soccer. Lionel Messi despite not scoring a goal himself put up a spectacular performance for the Catalan outfit. To make matters worse for ‘Los Blancos’, defender Sergio Ramos left the pitch in the 93rd minute following a red card.
Cristiano looked clueless throughout the entire game as he received little to no service from his teammates. The time was marked by an intense rivalry between the pairs of Real Madrid and Barca and between CR7 and Lionel Messi. So, it is unsurprising to see the defeat as a very humiliating moment for Cristiano Ronaldo.
5) Loss to Morocco in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Quarter Finals
Fans had considered the FIFA World Cup 2022 as Cristiano’s last shot at World Cup glory. The 5-time UCL and the 2016 Euro winner had conquered it all with both club and country. Cristiano Ronaldo was 37 years old then and it was difficult for him to make it to the next World Cup in 2026. Portugal had been the favorites of the tournament after a perfect record in the group stage and came to the Quarter Finals as 6-1 victors against Switzerland.
Cristiano Ronaldo was in tears as he walked down the tunnel after Portugal’s loss. pic.twitter.com/FS6C7WMxbd
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 10, 2022
However, Portugal and Cristiano’s dream of lifting their first World Cup came to a premature end in the QF against Morocco. The North African team beat Portugal 1-0 to become the first-ever African team to enter the semi-finals of a World Cup.
Cristiano could not even make it to the starting lineup after he was named among the substitutes for the second game in a row. CR7 entered the pitch in the 51st minute but couldn’t help his team much, as he left the stadium in tears.
Cristiano Ronaldo degrades the Ballon d’Or and FIFA The Best Awards
In a shocking turn of events, the Portuguese captain questioned the authenticity of the two prestigious awards. Cristiano’s controversial comments came in the 2023 Globe Soccer Awards event held in Dubai, UAE. CR7 had a memorable night as he won the title of Maradona Award for Best Goalscorer in 2023 and Best Middle East Player in 2023.
View this post on Instagram
Cristiano’s comments carried even more significance after Lionel Messi clinched the FIFA Best Men’s Player Award 2023. The Portuguese captain believes that the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA The Best Awards are both losing credibility. He said, “We have to analyze the entire season. It’s not to say that Messi didn’t deserve the award, or Haaland or even Mbappei, I simply no longer believe in these awards”.
CR7 believes that the awards have started to overlook the numbers and called out for better methods to determine the winner of these awards. Cristiano Ronaldo declared that only focus helped him to flourish at Al-Nassr after a disappointing stint with Manchester United.