Off the back of a campaign that in almost any other year would have led to a League title but which was thwarted by the unremitting excellence of Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo captained the Portuguese national team in the World Cup in South Africa. The team, coached by Carlos Queiroz, the man who was responsible for drawing Cristiano Ronaldo to Alex Ferguson’s attention when the player was at Sporting, and who had helped smooth his transfer to Real Madrid, had got off to an unimpressive start in the group stage with a drab goalless draw with Ivory Coast.
Then, with Cristiano Ronaldo as a key figure, Portugal had put on a display of ruthlessness and verve to defeat a motivated North Korea 7–0. Although he scored only one of these goals, it broke a two-year drought: the last one he had scored with the national team had been in Euro 2008.
There was less cause for celebrating the next match. For all the marketing hype of Cristiano Ronaldo being the new Pelé of the Portuguese-speaking world and Portugal as proponents of the beautiful game, the match between Portugal and Brazil failed to live up to expectations and ended in a goalless draw, which nonetheless allowed both teams to progress to the next round.
Against Brazil, Queiroz opted for a more defensive strategy to stifle the opponents, and its efficiency resulted in an anti-climactic and bad-tempered game, where the number of bookings outweighed clear-cut chances.
Ronaldo, playing in a lone attacking role, struggled to make any impact on the game, failing with a series of long-range efforts at goal. Only once did he really threaten when, fifteen minutes into the second half, he outpaced two Brazil defenders on a run from the halfway line, before being intercepted by Lúcio, with the ball crossing the face of the goal for Pepe, Ronaldo’s Real Madrid teammate, to hit wide of the left-hand post.
Then, in the last sixteen of the tournament, Ronaldo again captained his well-drilled side and threatened with his free kicks. But he was unable to avoid defeat at the hands of Vicente del Bosque’s Spain, on their way to becoming world champions two years after winning the European crown under the management of Luis Aragonés. Although Messi wasn’t on this pitch, his ghost was, conjured up in Spain’s movement, their tiny, skilful players moving in that familiar Barcelona way, and with a team owing so much to players who’d received their education at La Masia.
It was recognition of – as well as a generous tribute to – the extraordinary achievement of Pep Guardiola in building a team ethos and a style that had entertained as well as mesmerized millions of fans around the world, with supreme artistry and vision on and off the ball that demoralized and exhausted the opponent.
Del Bosque had seen what the galáctico era had done to Real Madrid, and was not impressed by celebrity or super-egos or waste. But his plan to have Spain follow up their success by retaining their European crown in 2012 would face a threat he had never imagined could emanate from a manager at his beloved Real Madrid.
For, on 31 May 2010, as the La Liga season reached its end, José Mourinho, fresh from winning the Champions League with Inter Milan after eliminating FC Barcelona in the semi-final with an impressively stifling performance, had been appointed as Manuel Pellegrini’s replacement at Real Madrid.