Nazi Germany looks to the United Kingdom as it advances in its conquest of Europe. Downing Street panic reigns, so the last option is to appoint an experienced military as prime minister. "He represents only one thing, himself," they say of a Winston Churchill embodied by Gary Oldman in the movie 'The Darkest Hours' (2017). It seems a title quite appropriate as parallelism to the moment that Cristiano Ronaldo lives in Juventus.

When he arrived in Turin last year in exchange for 100 million, there were those who thought it would be a risky bet for a 33-year-old player. The doubts quickly dissipated when making numbers and verifying that, in the worst case, they had acquired a money machine. But the primary objective was not that, but to gain the most voracious player in the Champions League to finally get a title turned into obsession. The real risk was to bet everything on an omnipotent footballer, renouncing the idea of ​​the assembly line with which this team has always understood football.

The Christian soloist entered the Juventus coral as a piece that must be forced to fit the mold. Or, rather, adapting the mold to the piece. But, of course, when this ceases to be the vault key, all the gear squeaks. He finished derailing on November 10, with Milan as a witness. Days before, the Portuguese had been replaced in the last minutes in Moscow against Lokomotiv. But against the Rossoneri all of Juventus Stadium saw how the change erupted the star.

Controversial gestures

The viewers on TV did not appreciate it the same, because while Ronaldo was musing, the performance pointed to the stands, where he wore all the paraphernalia of CR7. Cristiano went straight to the shower and from there, home. In the club they admitted that the gestures had not sat well, but they also did not want to punish him. It is already known that geniuses have to endure tone outlets.

They are not the first since arriving in Italy. This year there is a shortage of goals and a lot of fuss. The stands tolerate them or even celebrate them, as when they serve to enter a primitive battle with Simeone , but they are less understood when the protagonist gives little in return. This year only seven goals, four of them with a penalty, and the feeling that it hardly contributes to the game and finishes less than ever. The clearest was Fabio Capello , who recently said that "Cristiano has not left anyone for three years."

Another coach - his - Maurizio Sarri , has tried to defend him as best he has known. "When he has returned [from the team stop] he told us he was in pain, it is a problem that is conditioning him mentally. Our goal is the Champions League, we have to progressively reinstate him," said Sarri. But the rough Italian coach, missing link of an old school of technicians, is not exactly the most gifted for psychology. As if Luis Aragonés had been told that Romario had to be recovered by pampering him and attending to his needs.

Sarri system change

Sarri wanted at the beginning of the campaign that Cristiano exercised a leading edge in an offensive trident, but the Portuguese was not convinced by the idea without a Mandzukic next to him who would defile himself in the pressure and open spaces for him. Dybala is a footballer who rubs the ball too much to play alongside Ronaldo, who likes verticality. The Juventian coach ended up switching to a system with two strikers, but the Portuguese is not happy there either, who sees that Dybala and Higuaín - two soccer players who had one foot outside the team in summer - begin to win the game against the always respectable amateur.

Everyone warns that the striker does not go through his best moment. And in a dispute like the one he has with Messi, the joys of one accentuate the miseries of the other. Last Monday the Argentine got his sixth Golden Ball, undoing the tie with CR7. Several players from Juve attended the gala, who came out in a defense towards their teammate too apathy to be taken seriously. Chiellini said that last year Real Madrid had maneuvered so that the award fell to Modric and not Cristiano. The Portuguese, who at that time received the award for the best player of last season in Serie A, said that "the rivalry with Messi has just begun."

At almost 35 years, Ronaldo has already seen more times how critics emerge at this point of the year, which dissipate in spring when the crucial moment arrives. At the moment the plot is in free fall for its protagonist, but the hardest hours of CR7 has two different endings. The outcome will depend on the future of Juve in Europe.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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  • Cristiano Ronaldo
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  • Italy

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