A head coach who admires Messi always defends Ronaldo after taking charge of Portugal!

In the complex world of professional football, which is intertwined with interests and power, the transformation of Portuguese head coach Roberto Martinez can be called an ironic fable. Once upon a time, when the Spanish coach was coaching the Belgian national team, he could express his appreciation for Messi frankly: "If you like football, then you will like Messi." However, when he took over as Portugal coach, he had to find various far-fetched explanations for Ronaldo's malicious elbow red card, beautifying an obvious act of violence as a helpless move of "trying to break free from the defense."

Martinez’s transformation is by no means an individual case, but a microcosm of the entire Portuguese football ecosystem. From "Messi is the treasure of football" to "Cristiano Ronaldo is just showing his true temperament", this transformation of the discourse system reveals the reality of football politics - when a player's influence transcends the scope of competition, even the national team coach has to succumb to some kind of "political correctness". Martinez's defense of Ronaldo's red card can be called a "masterpiece" of the art of language. He described a clear elbow strike as "bad luck" and a "broadcast angle problem", and even used "this is his first red card in the national team" to downplay the seriousness of the incident.

What is even more worrying is that this kind of self-censorship has deeply eroded the competitive culture of the Portuguese national team. When the coach cannot speak out about the problematic behavior of the team's stars, the team's combat effectiveness will inevitably be greatly reduced. History has repeatedly proven that any team that indulges the privileges of individual players will be difficult to go far in the highest level of competition. The Portuguese team has many talented young players, but has never been able to form a true team effort. This is closely related to the unhealthy power structure within the team.

From Martinez’s defense statement against his will, we saw Ronaldo’s deep kidnapping of the Portuguese national team. This star who calls himself "loves Portugal" is using his privileged position and bad temper to consume the team's future. What's even more ironic is that even local Portuguese fans are beginning to get tired of this "ball tyrant" - the Portuguese voted a few years ago to withdraw Ronaldo from starting the national team. When a country's football destiny is influenced by one person's emotions, and when the coach and teammates have to live in someone's shadow, such a team is destined to miss the championship. Unless the Portuguese football community has the courage to break this myth, no matter how outstanding the golden generation is, it will eventually be completely scrapped in someone's personal twilight.