Thank You, Ronaldo: The Portugal Shirt Comes Off
He's done with Portugal. Not with football — he'll still be out there in club colours, still annoyed about something, still demanding the ball. But the national shirt is finished. No more anthem with his hand on his chest and that face he does. No more armband. And for some reason that hit me harder than I expected, so I'm writing this. I didn't grow up watching football. Nobody in my house did. In our building it was cricket, cricket, and then cricket. Football was a thing that happened late at night in countries we'd never visit, involving names nobody could pronounce, on a channel we didn't put on. Then a skinny eighteen-year-old from Madeira walked onto a pitch in Manchester wearing a number seven shirt that was far too heavy for him. And for reasons I still can't fully explain, I started watching. I didn't find football and then find Ronaldo. I found Ronaldo, and football came attached. So this one is a thank-you note. It's goi...