The era of snap news can be an unforgiving one. It is quick to judge, even faster to dismiss and, most importantly, discounts objectivity for the sake of speed. Speed of communication, that is.

Opinion pieces fly askew, as the demand to discuss and demean grows louder, in proportion with the social standing of the subject. Cristiano Ronaldo, for all his accolades and achievements (and his faults), is no exception.

As late as January and February this year, headlines screamed, “Is Cristiano Ronaldo finished?” Was this the end of one of this generation’s, any generation’s, greats of the game?

These narratives conveniently ignored the fact that this superstar, supposedly on the wane, had scored 50 goals or more in six of his last seven seasons at the club level, and that he was banging ’em in for fun in World Cup qualifying.

Banal comparisons with Messi

The problem for the Portuguese phenom is that every action or inaction of his is viewed through a prism of his rivalry with Argentina’s Lionel Messi. The comparisons, although inevitable, can at times seem tedious and stretched out to the point of banality.

Did he dress better than Leo at the Ballon D’Or awards? If so, does he care more about his hair than the actual award? If not, is he flipping off the gala?

At times, it’s good to take a step back and sift through CR7’s career in its entirety. Arriving on the scene as a scrawny teenager in the early 2000s, he was branded a tightly-wound, self-serving winger more interested in earning his stripes than a team man gunning for collective glory.

It’s 2018 and Ronaldo is arguably viewed as the poster child for sporting arrogance. Individual trinkets have poured in but so have the trophies, with five winners’ medals from club football’s biggest competition hanging in his cabinet right now.

His critics have probably failed to understand that his will to succeed is intrinsically linked to his team’s good fortunes. Either through him taking centre-stage by scoring in three Champions League finals, or by acting as a talismanic cheerleader off the pitch like in the Euro 2016 final, where he was taken off injured but egged his team on from the bench.

Self-belief as positive reinforcement

Viewers, they see the hysterics: the less-than-pleasant gestures, the goading of opponents and teammates, a grown man-child protesting and gesticulating to bloat his own self-importance.

In the movie Borg McEnroe, the Swede Bjorn Borg, while watching his American rival exchange heated words with the referee on Wimbledon’s centre court and swear at a hostile crowd, is told that young John may have lost his head. The defending champion, not averse to the occasional act of teenage petulance himself, comments that it is exactly the opposite.

For Ronaldo, this seemingly irrational simulation of showmanship and haughtiness are the cleansing of his self of any timorousness involved, the calibration of the mind’s compass, a realisation of the enormity of the task before him and a laser-like visualisation of the job ahead.

His is a positive-reinforcement feedback loop, his desire to win fuelling the performer in him and demanding that his team rises up to the occasion with him, rather than be in awe of his abilities.

Orangutan off the back

The Euro win was a monkey, nay orangutan, off the back but the record at the World Cups will be nagging, eating away at the back of that all-conquering head.

Three goals in 13 games against Iran, North Korea and Ghana will only serve to irk the man from Madeira, who will go full throttle from the off. The fact that his future Real Madrid boss was sacked by his first World Cup opponents two days prior to the tournament’s start, will not register once the teams face off.

If anything, the desire to get one over his Madrid teammates in his individual capacity as Portugal captain and with a team perceived as underdogs is likely to spur him on. The sense of occasion will not be lost on Sergio Ramos and Co, who will not hesitate before rubbing their club’s totem the wrong way.

Last World Cup or not, this will be his best shot at winning the one thing that has eluded him throughout the last 15 years. What has been proven conclusively is that Cristiano, and only Cristiano, will get to decide when his last rodeo takes place.