Brand - C.Ronaldo is not use to sitting on the bench. He was the main attraction in any team he went to. He dictated the tune, both club management, coaching crew and staff, as well as fellow players and fans bow to his whims and caprices. He shattered records, won trophies and had hundreds of million followers; perhaps, the most followed individual on Instagram, twitter and other major social media platform.
For him, only one major competitor, Lionel Messi and he had put together a consortium of sport marketing professionals to make sure he got ahead the Argentine diminutive magician. He got his own brand CR7 striving in business based on his fledging football skills and his superstar looks: men's underwear, beach wears and endorsements worth millions of dollars.
So, he cannot be relegated to the background or made to sit on the bench... and in protecting his megabrand, Ronaldo has taken it out on Real Madrid, Juventus and most recently Manchester United team hierarchies.
The world Cup in Qatar didn't help in any way to resuscitate his brand reputation as he was made to sit on the bench again, now for "strategic reasons" as claimed the coach. But while on the bench Portugal got her best result in Qatar, 6 - 1 routing of Switzerland and the international media took it up: "Ronaldo is no more relevant in the world of football." He is quickly fading away much to his chagrin.
Despite being in his late 30s the one prerequisite the Portuguese megastar has at any club is that he is the main attraction.
This is the man who left Real Madrid for Juventus because he didn’t feel the team’s hierarchy loved him as much as he used to.
"The president looked at me in a way that suggested I was no longer indispensable if you know what I mean. That is what made me think about leaving,” he explained at the time, "for the first four or five years, I felt like Cristiano Ronaldo. Less so after.”
His next team, Juventus, was disposed of when he felt the Italian giants weren’t at the level Ronaldo expected.
But at his current home, Manchester United, he believes things are even worse.
“The progress was zero,” he said of the ten-year gap between his two spells in North West England, “since [legendary coach] Sir Alex [Ferguson] left [in 2013], I saw no evolution in the club. Nothing had changed.”
“I think the fans should know the truth I want the best for the club. This is why I come to Manchester United.
“But you have some things inside that don’t help [us] reach the top level as [Manchester] City, Liverpool and even now Arsenal.”
The comments were made in an explosive pre-World Cup interview with controversial British media personality Piers Morgan an event which has twisted the spotlight onto Ronaldo ahead of the tournament in Qatar.
Attention as much as action is probably what Ronaldo wants and, let’s face it, for a man on a Michael Jordan level of sporting significance is also a business necessity.
The Bench Is Bad for ‘Brand Ronaldo’
In the summer, Ronaldo had made no secret of his desire to leave Old Trafford but, as a buyer could not be sourced and despite the probable reservations of both parties, the player and club had to stick it out.
As the new season began coach Erik ten Hag attempted and failed to use Ronaldo within his system, built on high-intensity pressing.
When he finally dropped the Portuguese star from his starting lineup United was a more coherent outfit and results improved.
But the self-professed ‘king’ was not happy, riding the bench for the good of the team is not really in his makeup.
Often the camera would pick out a scowling Ronaldo in the Old Trafford stands, the striker not even attempting to hide his disgust at being left off the field.
The climax of this tableau came in the 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur when Ronaldo refused to come on as a sub.
That rebuttal might have flown under the radar had he not also made a public show of his dissatisfaction by walking from the bench before the final whistle had blown.
In the aftermath, Ten Hag felt he needed to reaffirm who was in charge.
"I am the manager and I am responsible for the top sport culture here and I have to set standards and values and I have to control them," he told reporters, ”I sent a warning at the start of the season, next time there have to be consequences. Football is a team sport and you have to fulfill certain standards.”
Ronaldo has not taken kindly to the Dutchman’s lines in the sand, “I don’t have respect for him because he doesn’t show respect for me,” he told Morgan, “If you don’t have respect for me, I’m never going to have respect for you.”
The Attention Economy
The whole debacle has placed Manchester United in a pretty horrible position.
Following the interview, the club took the unprecedented step of issuing an official statement stating it would “consider [its] response after the full facts have been established.”
“Our focus remains on preparing for the second half of the season and continuing the momentum, belief and togetherness being built among the players, manager, staff, and fans,” United added.
The manner he has gone about it has been questioned, but undeniably Ronaldo has shifted the narrative.
Rather than his touchline antics being a negative footnote of otherwise steady progress under ten Hag, Ronaldo is once again at the center of it all.
Ten Hag’s statements about “standards” and “values” have been reframed as a matter of “respect,” while it’s the decline of the club dragging Ronaldo down rather than him disrupting the team.
More important than any of that and, perhaps what Ronaldo cares about most, is the attention it has generated.
The man with more followers on Instagram than anyone in the world understands the attention economy completely. It doesn’t matter if the conversations are good or bad just make sure you are trending.
It is understood that part of his motivation to agitate for a transfer from Juventus was a result of that summer’s focus on Lionel Messi’s departure from Barcelona.
Even though speculation about his long-term rival was hardly positive and wasn’t related to his actions on the pitch Ronaldo understood if Messi’s name was on everyone’s lips he should be too.
As his career enters its final phase maintaining that notoriety is even more important.
According to the most recent Forbes list, the best-paid player in the world is now Kylian Mbappe not Christiano Ronaldo.
That growth is driven by the young Frenchman’s sporting salary, when it comes to off-field earnings the young Frenchman doesn’t even come close to CR7.
The $60 million Ronaldo raked in is more than three times what Mbappe takes home and only Lionel Messi comes close to the sums earned by the Portuguese star.
It’s because ‘Brand Ronaldo’ remains one of the most powerful in sport and with the final World Cup on the horizon, it’s now about solidifying legacy.
The United striker told Morgan he wants to win the World Cup for Portugal, but, regardless of whether he achieves that goal, he’s already grabbed the limelight and that could be just as lucrative.
