A Born Leader and Trained Professional Football Player

Cristiano Ronaldo

POSITION: Forward

HEIGHT: 6'0" (1.84m)

WEIGHT: 174 lbs (79 kg)

AGE:32

DOB: February 5, 1985

Apart from being the phenomenal player that he is, Cristiano is a leader by nature. There are a number of qualities that make him a good leader.

• He can take responsibility. Be it success, be it failure.
• He acts as a support system for Portugal. It’s like he has everyone's back.
• He is very motivating. Before the penalty shoot out against Poland during Euro 2016 he motivated Moutinho to take a shot who was too scared to do so. I mean, that's a little bit that the camera caught. He must often do things like that.
• Eder said in an interview after Portugal won the Euro Cup 2016 - ‘Ronaldo told me I would score the winning goal for the team. He gave me this strength, this energy and it was vital.’ So even when he is unable to play he encourages his team mates to step up their game and bring success.
• I would also say, he has a good understanding of human nature. You can see that when he calms over-excited fans as well. He knows how to help with words.
• He steps up when his teammates need him.
• Lastly, he has a great hunger for achieving glories and titles for the national team. He takes a lot of pride in being the captain.

The convenient narrative on Ronaldo is that he’s selfish and out to score his goals and hog the spotlight. But that has never been very fair to him and he’s been the opposite at the Euros, instead being every bit the phenomenal leader that one would expect from the team’s captain.

After Ronaldo came out of the match, he went straight down the tunnel and had his knee examined. After that, he came back out to the bench and was seen enouraging his teammates, instructing them and bringing players together for talks. When Eder scored, he hobbled his way to the celebration and was visibly crying.

It’s not as if Ronaldo simply took on the role of the leader in the final either. When Portugal went to penalty kicks against Poland in the quarterfinals, Ronaldo essentially picked Moutinho to take a spot kick himself and then convinced Moutinho that he would make it, which Moutinho did.

Ronaldo would have obviously preferred to have been on the pitch for the entirety of the final. Injury have prevented that, but Ronaldo still made his presence felt as a leader. He was the team’s captain in every way all tournament long and again with the title on the line, doing everything he could to help his country. When he was handed the trophy to lift for the first time in Portugal history, nobody deserved to do it more, with the armband on, a smile on his face and his entire team beside him, as had been the case all Euros long.