At the 2022 World Cup, why can t Portugal surround Ronaldo like Argentina surrounds Messi?

I have always wanted to talk about this topic. As we all know, Argentina's successful victory in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is largely due to the unity of the team. A group of powerful young players surrounded Messi and went all out on both sides of the offense and defense to "lift the piano" for Messi, allowing him to concentrate on "playing" and finally win the Hercules Cup, and also helped Messi play an international competition with the best career data.

So someone suggested that if the Portuguese team could unite like Argentina and play around Ronaldo, it would be possible to win the championship. We will not discuss whether this assumption will be valid here, but only why Portugal was not united around Ronaldo at that time. Regarding this issue, black fans always assert that Ronaldo is not as strong as Messi, especially his personality is not as pleasant as Messi.

This view may seem reasonable at first glance, but a little thought will reveal loopholes. Messi has been strong and has a low-key personality for more than 20 years. Why can't Argentina unite before? It has been a day or two for Ronaldo to be strong and boastful. Why is Portugal very united in the 2016 European Cup?

Whether a team can unite around a certain player depends not only on the player's prestige, but also on the teammates' own quality and the level of support of the coach. Portugal in 2022 is not conducive to Ronaldo in these three aspects.

That year was undoubtedly the darkest year in Ronaldo's career. Although he had a hat-trick feat when facing Tottenham in the Premier League in the first half of the year, bad luck followed one after another from the moment his child died. Due to rumors of losing his son and leaving the team, he did not participate in Manchester United's pre-season training camp. New coach Ten Hager used this to establish his authority, causing him to lose his main position in the new season, and even had to replace him with "trash time" in the 89th minute when the game was defeated. He was in a sluggish state for more than three months and contributed only 3 goals and 2 assists in various competitions. Not only fans can see this situation, but also Portugal’s teammates know it well. Especially for B Fee, Felix, Cancelo and others, this seems to be a good opportunity to get ahead. B Fee was the absolute core of Manchester United before Ronaldo's return. Ronaldo's return made him lose his "boss" status, and there is inevitably an objection. Felix is worth 127 million euros and is also the winner of the European Golden Globe Awards. He is regarded as the future leader of Portugal and is inevitably arrogant. This conforms to basic human nature and workplace laws.

In the group stage, Ronaldo scored only 1 goal and was still deeply involved in the controversy of "hair" goals, which seemed to further strengthen the teammates' belief in snatching power. The old coach Santos couldn't withstand the pressure and ruled out Ronaldo from the start in the 1/8 final, causing him to completely lose support. Coincidentally, Portugal defeated Switzerland 6-1 in that game, and the first hat-trick Ramos seemed to confirm that Portugal, which was not Ronaldo, was stronger.

In the game against Morocco, Portugal played in disarray and was behind in the score, Ronaldo came on as a substitute in the 50th minute, and the team's offense immediately improved, but in the end, the goddess of luck did not stand on their side, and the Golden Generation stopped in the quarterfinals.

The whole story is like a company. The top leader has been in power for more than ten years and has been smooth sailing. However, recently he has been in poor health and in poor condition, and seems to be no longer competent. So several young deputy positions are ready to move and join forces with the major shareholder behind him to exterminate the top leader and force him to abdicate. However, the result of stopping in the quarterfinals declared that this "mutage" ended in failure. After taking office, Martinez redefined Ronaldo's status and publicly supported him many times. He knew very well that although Ronaldo was old and his condition was no longer the same as before, no one could replace him on the court or in the locker room at this stage.

Coincidentally, after the World Cup, the development of B Fee, Felix and Cancelo was not satisfactory. Instead, Ronaldo regained confidence in the Saudi league and scored continuously in the European qualifiers and the European League, indirectly reducing the Portuguese locker room.

In short, under the combined action of a variety of adverse factors, Ronaldo temporarily lost his prestige in the Portuguese team at that time. Fortunately, the Portuguese team has reunite after the dual training of the European Cup and the European League, and the young players have revenged their respect for this big brother and senior.