Cristiano Ronaldo and the Problem with Too Much Fame

As far as the authorities in Gelsenkirchen were concerned, all precautions had been taken. Extra stewards patrolled the perimeter of the pitch at the Arena AufSchalke. Plainclothes security personnel sat in the stands. And two imposing guards stood at the edge of the tunnel leading to the locker rooms.

And yet even that wasn’t enough. As the Portuguese players trudged to the locker room after their defeat to Georgia last week, one fan bypassed the extra layers of security by throwing himself over the top of the tunnel and jump straight into Cristiano Ronaldo’s footsteps.

Instead of coming face to face with his hero, the intruder botched his landing and fell down a flight of stairs. The point was made, though. Ronaldo’s appeal is so great that no matter what the stadium authorities or security services do, there’s ultimately no way to stop people trying to take a selfie with him.

Ronaldo’s fame cannot really be overstated at this point. Now 39, he has been one of the two best footballers of his generation for 20 years: a breaker of countless records, a serial champion, a multiple winner of the Ballon d’Or as the best player in the world.

That status has waned in recent years as the clock ticks down on his career, but it has had little impact on his broader footprint. He remains a walking billboard. His portfolio of endorsements includes high fashion (Louis Vuitton), heavy industry (Egyptian steel) and cryptocurrency (Binance).

His image has been used to sell products as diverse as luxury watches, nutritional supplements and Japanese facial muscle toners. Saudi Arabia is currently trying to grow an entire top-flight football league in light of its supernova. But it’s more than a brand; it’s a certain kind of aspiration, a mix of wealth, success and a seriously great skincare routine, a high-end podcast in perfect flesh.

According to one of the stats that modern culture has most meaningfully declared—the number of followers you have on Instagram—Ronaldo may just be the most famous person in the world. He has 633 million followers, twice as many as Beyoncé. In other words, if Cristiano Ronaldo’s Instagram were a country, it would be the third-largest in the world.

His fame is such that it is causing headaches for everyone involved in the first three weeks of Euro 2024.

The most immediate issue is a security one: all but one of Portugal’s four matches during the tournament were interrupted by one or more fans attempting to enter the field to take a selfie with Ronaldo.

After the first two pitch invaders entered the field during Portugal’s opening match, the Portuguese Football Federation wrote to UEFA, the governing body of European football. The letter was polite and written in a way that seemed to acknowledge that the combination of social media and Ronaldo’s celebrity was new territory for football, but it asked for extra security measures.

After Portugal’s second match — against Turkey, when half a dozen fans entered the field — Portugal coach Roberto Martínez admitted it was becoming a “concern” after one of his other stars was knocked to the ground by a steward who chased a man who was on his way to Ronaldo.

The issue has been discussed at UEFA’s daily operational meetings, and Germany, the tournament’s host, has already been fined more than $21,000 for failing to keep its pitches safe. How much more can be done, however, is unclear. “It’s really difficult once they’re on the pitch,” said Tom Richmond, founder of Security and Safety Solutions, a company that provides both to football teams and players. “The stewards are all paid minimum wage; they’re not really a barrier to anyone wanting to get on the pitch.”

But there is a growing sense that Ronaldo’s fame could also be a sporting problem. Portugal may have reached the quarter-finals — they play France in Hamburg on Friday — but their performances have been largely uninspiring. They beat the Czech Republic in their opening match only thanks to a stoppage-time goal. They lost their final group game to Georgia, the lowest-ranked team in the tournament. They needed a penalty shootout to beat Slovenia in the round of 16.

There’s a common thread running through all those games: the perfectly muscled, impeccably coiffed superstar fending off selfie-hunting fans. Ronaldo is the only outfielder to have started every match for Portugal. He has yet to score a goal. His most notable contribution so far was missing a penalty in extra time against Slovenia, a failure that left him in tears.

In many ways, however, his performances were not a big surprise. Ronaldo has spent the past two seasons playing mainly in Saudi Arabia’s revamped league. He has not played in the Champions League, the highest form of club football, since 2022.

His international career seemed to have come to a natural end 18 months ago during the World Cup, when he was dropped from the starting line-up for a match against Switzerland. He had scored just once in the tournament at that point, from the penalty spot. His replacement, striker Gonçalo Ramos, scored three times in just over an hour. The page seemed to have turned.

Martinez, however, clearly thinks otherwise. He was hired after the World Cup and has been adamant in his defence of Ronaldo at this tournament. The striker’s presence, Martinez has made clear, is both non-negotiable and “based on merit,” as he put it last month. Even after the Slovenia game, Martinez was quick to proclaim how “proud” he was of his ageing star.

While there are others who are prepared to present the other side of the argument, and gently suggest that all those fans with their mobile phones are looking for a photo with someone who, like them, probably shouldn’t be on the field, that’s not an easy position to take.

“When someone knocks on the door, you don’t ask who they were, you ask who they are,” said Portuguese journalist and presenter Sofia Oliveira. said on CNN Portugal after the match against Slovenia. All her studio colleagues knew, she said, but they didn’t seem particularly prepared to say it out loud.

The images spread immediately. The reaction was, in part, predictably vitriol. “Questioning his value is always difficult, because we are talking about one of the greatest players of all time,” Oliveira said in a series of text messages to The New York Times.

Mrs Oliveira stressed that she “does not think he no longer has the quality to represent the national team”, but that “the current moment in his career” must be taken into account.

“This is not the first match in which it is clear that the current Cristiano does not present enough football arguments to secure an undisputed place,” she said. “Portugal has options and in order not to undermine his status, we ignore other players.”

Her view — one often voiced by observers outside Portugal — is that Martínez and his employers are unwilling to leave Ronaldo out or even replace him. And that they are, in fact, no less compelled to do so by his celebrity than those who rush from the stands in the hope of a photo.

The reason for that is summed up in what happened the last time Portugal tried to get past him. In that match against Switzerland at the 2022 World Cup, the Portuguese were leading 5-0 with a quarter of the game remaining. Ramos had scored three times. But instead of celebrating a new hero, the crowd chanted Ronaldo’s name. The sport was over, they had decided. Now they wanted the show they had come for.

“It is almost to be expected that Cristiano himself will realise that he is no longer at the same level,” said Ms Oliveira. “It will not be the federation or Roberto Martínez who will do it.”

More than his Instagram following, that is perhaps the best measure of Ronaldo’s unassailable status. He is so famous that in one country, Germany, it is becoming increasingly difficult to organise football matches featuring him. And he is so famous that another country, Portugal, is unwilling to play football matches without him.

Andrew Das contributed to the reporting.