Cristiano Ronaldo has evolved

Armed with a smoke-burnished voice and a brooding mien to go with his flamboyant persona, Portuguese football legend Luis Figo wouldn’t look out of place as the head of a Mafia clan. Better still, it is not beyond him to be a serious cause of insomnia to some of the A-list celebrities residing in Beverly Hills. He did terrorise people when he was actively practicing his trade and was one of the select few to have transcended the footballing divide between Barcelona and Real Madrid.

Having been a winger of the highest repute, it was only second nature to him to take many a player hankering after glory under his wing, chief amongst them being a certain Cristiano Ronaldo. It is a classic case of the protégé outshining his mentor, but, Figo’s heart fills with pride to see the giant strides that Ronaldo has taken. “Football at the highest level is all about the evolution of skills and maturity. Both these aspects coupled with physical prowess have made Cristiano the player he is today,” said the 43-year-old president of Premier Futsal.

The concomitant glow on his visage suggested that he was basking in the afterglow of Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph recently, and comparisons were inevitable to the team he led in Euro 2004, where they lost to Greece in the final.

The straight-talking reputation that Figo has, came to the fore when he said he is not the one to compare teams belonging to different eras and also rubbished any talk of there being a disappointment at him failing to win a major international silverware.

“I am proud of what I did for my country. I don’t want to compare the current team to the one in 2004. The players were different, the style of play and the opponents varied greatly. I hope this team can build on this win and have a good World Cup in Russia,” added Figo, who is in the country to preside over the inaugural Premier Futsal tournament.

Figo has been a man of many parts and is known as much for his outspoken views as for his football skills. He waxed lyrical about his friend Zinedine Zidane before sounding a little skeptical about how big his one-time ally can make it in the cut-throat world of management. “I am happy for Zizou. He made a good start to his managerial career by winning the Champions League. But the expectations are always high at Real Madrid. I hope he does even better,” said Figo, who is all too familiar with the censorious wont of the club president Florentino Perez.