Cristiano Ronaldo, 41, arrived at the pre-match Portugal vs Spain press conference with his guard up. He looked at a journalist, pointed at him, and challenged him bluntly: he said he knew he didn’t like him and told him to ask, for once, a good question. When the reporter asked what was hardest about playing a World Cup at 41, Cristiano didn’t hesitate: “talking to you”, he replied with a razor-sharp smile.
But the Portuguese captain had another story, a much sweeter one, in store. On the flight to Dallas/Arlington, Texas, he crossed paths with an Argentine flight attendant. They didn’t talk much, but he swore he knew where she was from by the way she looked at him… and by how she looked away right away. “That means she doesn’t like Cristiano”, he joked in front of the journalists, laughing.
He quickly clarified that it was just a joke: he has a special affection for Argentines, he said, because his partner, Georgina Rodríguez, was born in Buenos Aires. With three goals in the tournament and advice included for Lamine Yamal on how to handle criticism, Cristiano arrived for the clash against Spain showing the two sides that made him world-famous: the warrior who doesn’t forgive an uncomfortable question, and the guy who laughs at himself as soon as he steps out of the ring.