The first few months of last year saw Cristiano being praised by many for being 36 yet the top scorer of Manchester United in the Premier League while Messi was still struggling at Paris Saint-Germain, fast forward to the last of the year and Messi has won the World Cup final while Cristiano had no top European interested in signing in him and ended up going to Saudi Arabia. So, how did we get here?

As a player, I never found joy in what Cristiano Ronaldo was doing. I get that goals win you games and make for great stats to own someone on Twitter, but when it comes to my criteria and my enjoyment, Cristiano Ronaldo was never it for me. But, this is my attempt to understand Cristiano on a fundamental level and see how his decline was caused by his decisions.

Cristiano On Top Of The World

The 2017-2018 season ended with Cristiano on top of the world. He had won his fourth UEFA Champions League title with Real Madrid, the fifth overall. His 2018 started with him winning the Ballon d'Or and he looked destined to win the sixth, which was disrupted by Portugal's weak showing in the World Cup plus Croatia's rise to the final, led by Cristiano's previous teammate, Luka Modrić.

In hindsight, Cristiano ruined his chances of equalizing Messi's record of being the player with the most Ballon d'Or trophies. But, we need to understand that the reading was different at the time. Another Ballon d'Or would actually have added nothing to Cristiano because he wasn't trying to be equal to Messi, he was trying to be better than Messi. Something that wasn't going to happen in Real Madrid then as Zidane had left the club, replaced by Lopetegui. As great as Lopetegui would have been, there was a winning formula that has been ruined.

I know that Real Madrid's fortune has changed since that moment but we need to realize that Real Madrid has been shaped by Ancelotti and Zidane's form too much that in case Ancelotti gets fired or leaves Real Madrid, the best replacement for him is Zidane. Cristiano was right to think this was a sinking ship, and for some time it was.

So, you're the best goal-scorer in the world competing for the best in the world and history, what's your next step to solidify your place? Go to a club that needs you to complete its team for the next UEFA Champions League campaign.

Juventus

Juventus made the most sense for Cristiano to join. The club made two finals and was denied a possible third thanks to Cristiano. The club's journey to win the UEFA Champions League also made huge headlines as it was the title that the current generation missed. It was a beautiful story that needed a happy ending.

Cristiano, on the other hand, would have that title solidifying him as the greatest of all time. Being the player that won a total of six UEFA Champions League titles, including one the "La Decima" for Real Madrid, the only Champions League title for Manchester United in the new venture, and finally, the title that illuded Juventus for so many years, it's a perfect ending. Add to that, Cristiano had already won the Euro two years prior.

Perfectly Calculated, Except...

Juventus made the most sense, Atletico's generation was wearing off, Liverpool wasn't yet proven in the finals, plus their style was far from what he needed, and Bayern Munich had Lewandowski. Juventus was also a club with just him as the missing piece, as I shared here on April 2021. Everything made sense, but then, everything started to fall into pieces.

After a failed campaign, Juventus, for some odd reason, decided that they would start a whole new process and football style under a new coach, shedding their entire skin and system which was built to accommodate Cristiano. The team went from needing a few signings to keep its quest alive, to needing many more to fit the style of the new coach, Maurizio Sarri.

Sarri obviously needed time as the plan was to create a new style which required different players from the ones existing. Sarri lost against Lyon, and the result of that was an even weirder decision of appointing Andrea Pirlo as a coach was literally 9 days as Juventus' under-23 team. Once again a whole new system was implanted, funny enough, no one even knows what the new system even was. Pirlo as a coach was another failure, fast forward to Allegri returning, and a whole new process needed to start.

I can't blame Cristiano for Juventus' failure here as even at the time, their decisions didn't make much sense, even less now in hindsight. Cristiano made the right assessment of the situation at the time but it was a bit like scanning a swimming pool for danger, finding nothing then diving in before the owners fill it with stingrays for some odd reason.

Cristiano's Mistake

Where there's blame on Cristiano for his gamble, as well as on Juventus for that matter when it comes to football as commercially it made a lot of sense, is that neither looked at Cristiano's stats at the Champions League properly before making the signing.

I know Cristiano is the top goal-scorer of all time in the Champions League as a whole, and its knockout stages in specific, but what no one seemed to realize is that Cristiano's goals didn't include as many decisive goals as many seem to believe. Cristiano only scored the decisive goals to win matches 5 times in his career in the Champions League since Joining Real Madrid in the knockout stages. Cristiano's goals were often the third or fourth goal after the winning goal, less often the second.

This is not a dig at Cristiano but rather a breakdown of how Juventus have always needed a decisive goal-scorer to show up as Cristiano is rarely the one to be that, mainly because he is well-marked during those tight games. Cristiano does play a huge role still in ending matches but needed that extra player.

This is a conclusion that Juventus might have reached had they kept Allegri in the first place.

In Conclusion

Yes, Cristiano Ronaldo's career declined ever since he left Real Madrid, there's no denying that. But, we have to put the bigger picture into consideration when revisiting those crucial moments. We also have to take into consideration what was on the line, Cristiano wasn't in a race for just another title, no matter how great that title is, he wasn't in a race for just another trophy. Cristiano was in a race for the greatest of all time. Once you consider that, you realize how much Cristiano had to gain from moving to Juventus.