Well, the rivalry between the two best footballers in the world has taken a turn for the more intense.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had a heated confrontation on the pitch during a recent Classico. Harsh words were exchanged. Gestures were used in an angry manner. Not surprising from two of the most competitive people on the planet, but goodness guys there were children watching.
When Real Madrid played Espanyol two weekends ago, no one expected anything other than a commanding Madrid victory, and that’s exactly what happened. No one player was a bigger manifestation of that dominance than Cristiano Ronaldo. He scored 5 goals that day, ending the season’s first prematurely controversial goal drought at just 2 games. He would go on to score a hat trick three days later in the Champions League.
James Rodriguez made a big splash at the 2014 World Cup, prompting Real Madrid to spend a boatload of money to buy the Colombian attacking midfielder from Monaco. We went through Rodriguez's transfer histry to figure out how much he cost each time he was bought and sold throughout his career.
Zied has not lived the most comfortable of lives thus far. His home country, Syria, has been beset by violence and war and terror and turmoil for pretty much all of Zied's young life.
Zied's family joined the legions of refugees trying to escape Syria and flee to Europe, hoping for a better life — one where the likelyhood of having your head cut off on any given day is considerably lessened.
Then this happened.
Cristiano Ronaldo is headed to the silver screen, according to Spanish newspaper Marca.
The newspaper reported that Ronaldo has been given a part in an upcoming Martin Scorsese film called "The Manipulator."
Cristiano Ronaldo's season was off to a slow (for him) start. As happens when foorballers get off to slow starts to seasons (see Rooney, Wayne and Kane, Harry), the general public begins loudly wondering whether the footballer in question has lost it.
Cristiano Ronaldo has now scored eight goals in two games in the span of four days, so we can safely say that he is still one of the two best players in the world.
Before today, Cristiano Ronaldo had 77 goals in the Champions League. Lionel Messi had 77 goals in the Champions League.
Now, Cristiano Ronaldo has 80 goals in the Champions League after converting a second-half hat trick that saw the Portuguese winger bury two penalties against Shakhtar Donetsk, and finish the whole thing off with a header off a rebound.
Messi still has 77 goals, but he doesn't play until tomorrow. Until then we will be giddy with anticipation, because Messi is no stranger to hat tricks himself.
Colombian James Rodriguez has nearly doubled his value in the transfer market since joining Real Madrid. Rodriguez has done this despite not having won La Liga, the Copa del Rey or the Champions League, and despite spending time away from the field due to injuries (he suffered a thigh tear with Colombia during the most recent international break and is expected to be out for several weeks).
Rodriguez’s career at Real Madrid so far seems to be all about numbers, so here are the 20 numbers we would use to explain how it’s gone so far for the young attacking mid.
Cristiano has released a fragrance. This is a surprising thing only because this is the first time Cristiano Ronaldo has released a fragrance.
We were shocked when we found this out. We figured Cristiano releases fragrances with the same frequency that some of us release bowel movements after we have eaten Taco Bell.
Cristiano's fragrance is called "Legacy," and we have no idea why. We guess it's one of those fragrance names engineered by marketers that's meant to sound kind of cool but ultimately means nothing.
Real Madrid certainly have a high opinion of Ronaldo. Which begs the question, how much is Cristiano Ronaldo worth to them?
Before we get into that, it's also worth asking why wouldn't Real Madrid assign a high value to Ronaldo? He's either the best or second-best footballer and one of the most marketabe athletes in the world. His jerseys fly off the shelves. He's the player people come to see when the come to see Real Madrid.
Paris Saint-Germain know this about Cristiano Ronaldo, and have in the past declared their intentions to buy him from Real Madrid.