Cristiano Ronaldo: Why It's Time to Stop Hating on Real Madrid's Virtuoso Star

I have never met Cristiano Ronaldo. We didn't play together at Sporting, Manchester United or Real Madrid. I'm not eligible to join him on international duty with Portugal—not that I know of anyway.

I'm not a disarmingly attractive female moving in footballer circles, either.

You could say I'm your typical Ronaldo judge. I form opinions of the world's second best player based on his actions on the football field and what I read about him off it.

Of his time at Sporting, I can't really comment. All I know is a teenage Ronaldo did enough in a friendly against Manchester United to have their players plead with Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him.

To Old Trafford he went, and I wasn't convinced, not at first anyway. Ronaldo flattered to deceive on the pitch, and was more than a decent haircut from cool off it. Too many step-overs, too much gel. Not quite the next George Best I was hoping for.

But in time Ronaldo won me over. The showboat found a driver, and with each season Ronaldo honed his craft. Soon enough, he was an exhilarating match-winner and United's famous No. 7 shirt belonged on his back.

There was still a little pouting and a little diving to address, but nothing that Ferguson wouldn't see to eventually.

And then came the wink heard around the world, during Portugal's penalty shootout victory against England in the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup.

Ronaldo was already an easy target in England with his penchant for theatrics and exhibitionism. After Wayne Rooney was sent off, he became the nation's premier sporting hate figure.

Let me rephrase that. He became the nation's premier hate figure.

Rooney wasn't just England's best player, he was Ronaldo's teammate at United.

Who does that to a teammate? Who does that to a supposed friend?

As a United fan, I feared the pair would never be the same again. I was right. They were considerably better.

In the season that followed, Rooney and Ronaldo fired United to the Premier League title. The year after, they combined with even greater success to lead United to glory at home and in Europe, with Ronaldo the defining factor of the Reds' Champions League triumph.

As a final goodbye before his move to Real Madrid in 2009, Ronaldo combined with Rooney to bring United a third straight title and take Ferguson's team within a Barcelona of back-to-back Champions League wins.

Ronaldo left England as the reigning best player in the world. He was also one of the most reviled.

In a poll of Premier League fans in 2009 Ronaldo was voted their "most hated," beating off the likes of El-Hadji Diouf, Joey Barton, Ashley Cole and Craig Bellamy. A spokesperson for the research, carried out by Wheresthematch.com, offered up the following explanation:

"

Ronaldo is undoubtedly talented, but the old phrase "nobody likes a show-off" is particularly apt in this case. 'For him to place higher than Diouf, whose spitting has gained him notoriety within football circles, he must be doing something wrong.

"

If fans thought Ronaldo was showing off during his time at United, imagine what they thought about his overblown, ceremonial unveiling at the Bernabeu, before 85,000 hysterical fans who came to pay homage to their latest galactico.

Here's how Rory Smith described the scene in his report for The Telegraph:

"

For a man desperate for adulation, for worship, it was the debut he had dreamed about. Fans queued for hours to get inside, with a further 10,000 locked out when the gates to the stadium shut at 8.40pm.

They chanted his name, they cheered the video montages—never again will Stoke City feature so prominently at the Bernabeu—and they waited.

"

Ronaldo's oft-stated Real Madrid dream was finally a reality, but with his £80 million transfer fee and £200,000 per week in wages came the kind of expectancy that's almost impossible to meet.

That and a whole lot more hatred, of course.

Now, it wasn't just fans in England who honed their Ronaldo hating, it was fans in Spain, too. He was selfish, egotistical, narcissistic and a diver—and you could hear it in just about any language you wanted to, and in any corner of the world.

It didn't help that Lionel Messi was skipping playfully to heady adulation and prolific success in the colors of Madrid's great rivals, Barcelona. And doing so in such a saintly fashion he made everyone around him look like a serial killer by comparison.

Messi was cast as the unassuming younger brother who can't help to be brilliant—Ronaldo the bitter older sibling driven mad by his inability to eclipse him.

Of course, most of it was an illusion.

All the while they talked down Ronaldo, he never stopped scoring goals, and he never stopped being the second best player of his generation. But by stepping into La Liga alongside Messi his every misfire was magnified. And his every missed trophy deemed a personal failure.

This season, Ronaldo's brilliance has been rewarded with a Spanish title. He's scored 44 league goals and counting and delivered a breathtaking attacking tour de force that some think should see him eclipse Messi for the 2012 Ballon d'Or.

The comparisons continue. But while one man is universally revered, the other remains a figure of hate for those who don't love him completely.

Consider the reaction to their respective penalty misses in Champions League semifinals this season as evidence. Messi's against Chelsea was felt as a huge shock and nothing more. Ronaldo's was leaped upon in some quarters as a moment for joyous celebration.

Such hatred. Such vitriol. And all for a footballer with a pretty-boy face who just happens to carry a confidence that can come across as arrogance.

What people seem to forget is that without Ronaldo's precociousness, there is no Ronaldo at all. It's that very thread of his personality that has carried him to where he is today—at the highest peak of an industry that is impenetrable to almost all of us.

Without it, he wouldn't be the player he is, and he wouldn't try the things that does on the field.

And it's that same overflowing self-belief that's allowed him to consistently overcome obstacles and time and again prove his worth as not just a footballer, but as a human being.

He was written off in England and responded. He was vilified in England and responded. And with every season in Spain, despite every attempt to undermine him, he gets stronger.

These days, if you're still hating Ronaldo, you're hating football.