Speaking in the glossy film about his life and remarkable career released past year, he said of Portugal’s chances in worldwide tournaments: “If we had two or three Cristiano Ronaldos in the team, I would feel more comfortable but we don’t”.
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“We are on the right path, but we have to keep our feet firmly on the ground.”
Portugal failed to get through the group stages at the 2014 World Cup but they have a solid record at the European Championships, making at least the quarter-finals in all of their six appearances at the competition.
Among the upgrades will be virtual-reality systems which allow fans to interact with Ronaldo as if he were in the room, and also to follow his footsteps from childhood games in Funchal to winning a third Champions League title with Madrid last month. Ronaldo scored 51 goals in 48 games in all competitions for Real this season.
Ronaldo is set to start in Portugal’s warm-up against Estonia in Lisbon on Wednesday night.
Although France are in good form, scoring 13 goals in the past four matches, they have played only friendly games since losing to Germany in the World Cup quarter-finals two years ago. Sportswear brands often pull out all the stops with their short movies and ads, but this is certainly one of the best we’ve seen.
The fact remains however that if Portugal are going to get anywhere near the final this time they are going to need the talismanic Ronaldo at his physical and mental peak.
France coach Didier Deschamps and captain Hugo Lloris have backed talisman midfielder Paul Pogba to banish transfer speculation and star in the upcoming European Championships. Obviously, the ideal thing would be for him to be at his best, but I would never leave out a Cristiano at 80 percent. “The team is to be congratulated, it has shown that we are good, and that goes for training as well”.
And Hafbor Bjornsson plans to do just that if the Portugal star scores against Iceland in the teams’ opening match of UEFA Euro 2016 on June 14 at Stade-Geoffroy Guichard in Saint-Etienne.
“So it’s all part of that”.
“It is normal that they arrive with us later”, Santos said. “He is ready to take Portugal to such an important success”, says Portugal coach Fernando Santos.
“I want to help Portugal to achieve its goals. It’s important to be back in competitive football – our last official game was the World Cup quarter-final against Germany”.
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Judging by his recent boat trip, it would seem so. Ronaldo, slowed by a knee injury, was then a shadow of the player who won that year’s Ballon d’Or.
