Ronaldo. Tired
Well, this is the definition of the headline: Stellar Nucleosynthesis.
In short, it means that a star starts to burn out.
What’s the connection to football? Cristiano Ronaldo.
The £80m man played more than 6,030 minutes in the 2011/12 season for Real Madrid and his country, more than any other athlete in the world. He had a tough Euro 2012 and almost no rest in the summer. And while Leo Messi had a good summer’s rest and looked very sharp in the first game of the season – CR7 looked jaded against Valencia. Burnt-Out.
El Mundo Deportivo, “Barca’s” newspaper, writes that Ronaldo is yet to recover from Portugal’s “failure” at the Euros, which has contributed to his dismal start to the new season. Adding to that Ronaldo’s problems is an alleged love triangle involving himself, long-time girlfriend Irina Shayk and Portuguese TV presenter Rita Pereira.
I think that Ronaldo is professional enough to get back into the right “mental state” but Jose Mourinho’s big challenge this season will be to make Real Madrid less reliant on Ronaldo. We know that big stars can turn into “black holes” and that’s the big danger for Real Madrid this season.
The transfer of Luka Modric should help take some creative pressure off Ronaldo’s shoulders but Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema will have to score more this season. By the way, Fernando Llorente is still available for transfer.
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