Ronaldo's tearful miss: The moment that shook Euro 2024

Cristiano Ronaldo has now become a meme. Perhaps even the meme of the century in soccer. Despite his undeniable greatness and the fact that he commands respect, the way the great Portuguese player cried on Monday after missing a penalty kick will go down in soccer history.

2016, during the Euro 2016 final, I sat in the stands in Paris and saw Ronaldo live, broken and wet with tears. He had to leave the field in the first half of the match due to injury. But then he, not then-Portuguese coach Fernando Santos, directed the team from the sidelines. He conducted, waved his arms, and got angry. And then he cried again, this time with joy because his teammates won 1-0 and took home the coveted trophy.

On Monday, Ronaldo wanted it badly in the match against Slovenia at Euro 2024. He took all the free kicks, waved his arms again, motivated everyone, and finally stepped up for a penalty kick in overtime. And he missed. The Slovenian goalkeeper, Jan Oblak, anticipated Ronaldo, dived where the ball went, and saved that shot.

A moment later, the referee called for a break in overtime, and the 39-year-old Ronaldo cried like a baby. Those were incredible scenes. Ronaldo is the captain of Portugal; at that moment, the match was not over, and everything was still possible. Meanwhile, the team had to console CR7, saving him from breaking down in front of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.

It will be straightforward to make fun of the brilliant Portuguese player now. The internet was flooded with memes at that moment; one can only imagine what will happen in the coming days.

But Cristiano Ronaldo is a great player, probably the greatest for many in history. Because it’s the great player who, after such a blunder, retakes the ball under his arm, faces the same goalkeeper again, takes a deep breath, closes his eyes for a moment, and this time scores in an even more critical moment, because in the penalty shootout.

Portugal continues to play, and Ronaldo still has a chance to be European champion again. The fact that he is simply a master in soccer has never been in doubt.