“Long live the propaganda!”
That was one Portuguese football fan’s response to the boringly predictable news that Cristiano Ronaldo had been named his country’s best player for a record tenth time.
There followed a landslide of remarks, on the comments sections of that nation’s newspapers and sports websites, pointing out that in every way you measure it, Manchester City star Bernardo Silva was the best Portuguese player last season.
A cursory glance at the stats, which would be the recourse of any lazy judge, might give Ronaldo the edge – after all, in terms of club league football last season he scored 21 goals to Bernardo’s eight.
But, given their contrasting positions, that is to be expected.
Bernardo was not just part of a City team that made history in the toughest league in the world, by winning all three domestic trophies.
He was arguably the best player in that team and, by dint of that, in the league as well.
In just about every other metric, Bernardo comes out on top – he made nearly five times as many tackles, nearly four times as many interceptions, five times as many dribbles, more key passes, and was dispossessed and showed bad control fewer times per game.
Of course, Ronaldo hogged the spotlight in the Euro Nations League semi-final with a spectacular hat-trick against Switzerland.
But to focus on that one game is to ignore the fact that the Juventus man missed the entire qualifying campaign. Bernardo was the undisputed star of that campaign and was, regardless of CR7’s treble again st the Swiss, Portugal’s best player in the finals tournament.
Even in that semi, Bernardo was the star, out-tackling everyone, and playing four key passes to Ronaldo’s one, including the sublime touch and reverse pass for the Supreme Ego’s second goal.
Bernardo was again the best player on the park in the 1-0 win over the Netherlands in the final.
Ronaldo was ordinary, and it was the City man’s clever no-look pass which set up Goncalo Guedes for the only goal.
Everyone could see it, not least the Portugal fans, who reacted with outrage to the news that Ronaldo has picked up the award
“Bernardo Silva by far the best ... Anyway, long live the propaganda!!” said one.
“Everyone knows that there was no comparison between one and the other, Bernardo VERY TOP !!!” said another.
And another pointed out that Ronaldo had barely played for his country last season: “Bernardo had been playing and Ronaldo made two, games just that. More assists, dribbles and others. What did your CR7 do? You are a shame.”
