Milan: Tellingly, Cristiano Ronaldo was ready with the statistics: more than 50 goals scored in a season (for a sixth successive campaign); top scorer in the Champions League again (16 goals); more minutes on the pitch for his club than any other Real Madrid player – and now three Champions League winners’ medals to his name, more than anyone else from his country, Portugal. He deserved, he said, the praise, the congratulation even and adulation.
“Only the jealous don’t feel that,” Ronaldo added. “But I don’t care about that. I always keep the people who love me. So this Champions League is for them, the guys who support me all the time, my fans in Portugal and around the world.”
It was 2am deep in the San Siro after the game and Ronaldo was dog-tired as he conducted his final media interview before the Real squad, staff, the officials and families boarded their flight back to Madrid to begin the celebrations proper at the Plaza de Cibeles, the square in the Spanish capital with its famous fountain where the players and supporters head once a trophy is won to party until dawn and beyond.
“The fans are waiting for us,” Ronaldo said. “It is a famous night.”
It was a famous night. Real had won the European Cup for an 11th time and for a second time in three years they had achieved it by beating their city rivals, Atletico Madrid, and done so, a little fortuitously, when it looked like the trophy was slipping away from them. They had even inflicted a rare doubt in the mind of Atletico coach Diego Simeone, who said he would now reflect on whether he had taken the club as far as he could.
And it had to be Ronaldo who struck the winning penalty in the shoot-out, after a 1-1 draw, after extra time when players were so cramped up and sapped by the stifling humidity in Milan that each movement appeared drenched in pain, and after a final in which he had been a peripheral half-fit figure who had missed chances.
“An unbelievable night,” said Ronaldo, who will not participate for Portugal versus England on Thursday.
“To win my third Champions League, penalties again, is unbearable. I was the top scorer in this competition again, I am so proud. We worked hard during the season to win this amazing trophy.”
It was interesting that Ronaldo himself raised the fact that he was this season’s Champions League top scorer, as he was with a record 17 goals the last time Real won it. He mentioned it more than once because he knows that, aged 31, with rumours that Real have considered selling him rather than renewing his contract, there has been a debate about whether he is the player he was, whether his powers are waning, that questions are being asked that have never been countenanced before.
“It is what it is,” Ronaldo, who has finished as the competition’s top scorer five times, said.
“My seven years [actually six] when I’m scoring more than 50 goals, but I am asking more. I am always in the top level. I just want to maintain. I still feel good, I still feel fresh, not tonight, and I want to carry on like that. I feel good and I love to play for Real Madrid. I want to carry on. I have more than 4,000 minutes [on the pitch this season]. I was the number one in the team, again, for most minutes. That means a lot to me. It means I am still good, I still feel good physically, mentally.
“If you ask me if I feel tired tonight, of course. A lot of minutes in the legs but I am still there, I am always there.
“I showed the team I am there for the good moments and the bad moments. This is what makes me feel proud.”
Typically Ronaldo grabbed the greatest moment. He had told coach Zinedine Zidane that he would take the fifth penalty in the shootout, which meant that with Atletico’s Juanfran having struck a post with his kick – the only player to miss – the Portuguese would win it if he scored. Ronaldo did.
“I was confident I would score,” he said. “I saw Zidane before the penalties and told him to put me as the last taker because I feel I am going to score the winning goal. This is what happened. I am so proud to score the winning goal and win the Champions League again: great.”
Ronaldo will now have six days off before meeting up with the Portugal squad ahead of Euro 2016.
Ronaldo, however, said he will not play against England on Thursday and admitted he needs a rest before joining the Portugal squad.
Asked if he would be playing against Roy Hodgson’s men, he said: “No, come on! Let me rest my legs. Now is the time to rest and enjoy this moment.”
