Madrid: Once famous for his extravagant stepovers and ability to leave defenders in his wake, Cristiano Ronaldo has this season evolved from fleet-footed winger to penalty box predator extraordinaire.
With eight goals in his last four knockout stage appearances, Ronaldo has almost single-handedly fired Zinedine Zidane’s side into Saturday’s Champions League final with Juventus.
The switch to centre forward has also seen Ronaldo overtake Jimmy Greaves as the top goalscorer in Europe’s top five leagues with 368 goals between the Premier League and La Liga, while also passing the milestones of 400 goals for Real and 100 Champions League strikes.
“The business end of the season is important. I feel good and want to be fit and firing because this is where things are decided,” Ronaldo said here Thursday. “I want to score goals and hopefully we don’t suffer too much. The team are in good form and we’ll try to enjoy it (the final). Winning the La Liga helped calm us down a lot. We want to make history and be the first side to defend our title.
“I’m at the best level physically as I have in the last few seasons because I have played less. It is down to the intelligence of Zidane and my teammates,” added the talismanic player
Indeed, the Frenchman’s decision to rotate the No. 7 has been a key factor in their success this season. Ronaldo has sat out four of the side’s previous nine games and is looking fresh. It is a stark contrast with last year, where he started 34 La Liga games before picking up an injury that saw him miss the Champions League semifinal victory over Manchester City.
The return speaks for itself, with 13 goals in his last nine appearances and the lowest number of games played in a single campaign since missing a large chunk of 2009/10 through injury.
“We’re intelligent, and even he sometimes needs to play a bit less,” Zidane said. “It’s not because he isn’t as physically fit but because he wants to head into the final stage of the season, when everything is at stake, in top form.
There is another prize at stake for the Portuguese captain, the chance to win the Ballon d’Or award for the fifth time and catch up with Lionel Messi, his arch rival. Ronaldo had confessed in 2015 when winning the award for the third time that he wants to match Messi. A goal and a sterling performance will certainly seal the trophy this season in his favour.
“I am aware of the fact that what I’ve done in football has already left and will continue to leave a mark,” Ronaldo told ‘UEFA.com’. “I haven’t broken so many records by accident. That’s not an obsession for me, but I do like breaking them. I still have some more to achieve.”
In the last Champions League final Ronaldo scored the winning goal from the spot during the shootout. This time no doubt, he would like to put the issue beyond doubt before regulation time itself. It would certainly then put him in the legendary bracket.
