For pretty much everyone involved or invested in La Liga, the biggest opportunity on offer during yesterday’s penultimate match day of the season was, seemingly, for Barcelona to wrap up the league title by beating Atlético. Cristiano Ronaldo, though, had his eyes on a larger prize. While Barcelona were crowned kings of Spain, Ronaldo was busy conquering—and yes, celebrating over—all of Europe by all but clinching for himself that coveted Golden Boot award.
We’d show you the actual goals that put Cristiano on 45 in the league for the season—four more than his closest challenger for both Spain’s Pichichi and Europe’s Golden Boot, Lionel Messi—but 1) La Liga is dumb about Youtube highlights, and 2) in typical CR7 fashion, the goals themselves weren’t much to write home about, anyway. Regardless, when the final whistle blew at Espanyol’s Estadi Cornellà-El Prat and Real clinched their 4-1 victory (a win spoiled by Barça’s corresponding triumph), Ronaldo could be seen happily collecting the game ball, vaunting, and waiting for his teammates to congratulate him on locking up a second consecutive Top Scorer’s Double:
Pepe—like most who fail to recognize the genius of Ronaldo and his unending quest to exalt Ronaldoism—was presumably preoccupied by his own lack of trophies this season and perhaps by Barcelona’s win, and tried to get his compatriot to tamp down his obvious joy. And demur Ronaldo did, as he applauded the visiting Real faithful before making his way off of the pitch in more subdued fashion. But make no mistake about it: Ronaldo knows just how big his achievements yesterday and all season were. If only his teammates, and the world, would recognize that.