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Haters be damned: Ronaldo rising above criticism again

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP / Getty

I don't mind people hating me, because it pushes me ... You have to see the good things from the haters. I need the enemy - Cristiano Ronaldo.

People have always hated Cristiano Ronaldo.

As a sinewy teenager at Manchester United, it was his antics down the flanks. Those superfluous stepovers were seen as showboating, and a penchant for flinging himself to the ground at the slightest hint of contact - or even, scandalously, the appearance of it - was a blight on the honour of the game. The audacity. No other footballer would ever dive, you see.

How dare he?

Then, shorn of the blond spaghetti-string haircut and having transformed his body into something befitting Greek mythology, criticism of the photogenic Portuguese shifted away from his performance on the pitch, and onto his vanity. Look good, feel good, play accordingly. The concept has been around forever. Ronaldo did it better than most, and he was vilified for it. Envy was everywhere. Of his abs. Of his tan. Of his fresh cuts.

The stunning goals and bloated trophy cabinet only helped the hatred fester. A conceited bench-warmer is an afterthought; nobody cares about Nicklas Bendtner. A vain record-breaker that will go down as one of the greatest players of all-time, not so much. Everybody, for better or worse, cares about Ronaldo.

An opulent move to Real Madrid later, and the accolades continued to pile up. With each one, the criticism intensified. Often from his own fans. They could be appeased with goals, however, and he obliged. Those without an affiliation to Los Blancos could not.

Celebrate winning the Ballon d'Or by screaming out in joy? A visceral moment of accomplishment became a social-media punchline. Rip off his shirt after firing home the winning penalty in the biggest club match football has to offer? Ronaldo was branded a narcissist.

That's fine. It fuels him.

"It is not a problem for me. It is a motivation," Ronaldo said in a 2015 interview with The Times when asked about channeling the widespread condemnation that accompanies every word he utters, every shot he takes.

The scorn has hit its apex at Euro 2016. Fans, some of whom watch the Selecao only to see Ronaldo fail, were like kids on Christmas morning during Portugal's opening two matches. Spurned chances, missed penalties, dropped points. By the time the final whistle blew to confirm a goalless draw against Austria, Ronaldo had taken more shots by himself (20) than nine teams at the tournament. He was yet to find the net, and the frustration was plain for all to see.

The masses ate it up.

Fitting, then, that he responded with an all-time dominant performance in Portugal's wild, back-and-forth draw against Hungary earlier this week. Layered with history, Ronaldo's two-goal, one-assist showing drove a stake through the schadenfreude that had swelled to astronomical levels after his first two matches of the competition.

Related: 5 best individual performances from the group stage of Euro 2016

On the verge of an embarrassing exit, he dragged his team back from the dead three times. With Portugal unable to find the killer pass for much of the first half, Ronaldo, whose game has morphed into that of the ultimate poacher as age has tried to rid him of the explosive skills that have long made him so fearsome, dropped deeper into midfield. His teammates were unable to deliver the final ball to him, so he flipped the script and did it himself, teeing up Nani for a vital equaliser.

His first goal of the contest, which saw him set a record as the only player in history to score at four separate European Championships, was the definition of audacious: a backheel flick that nestled into the corner. He completed his brace with a classic, emphatic header. Portugal was heading - just barely - to the Round of 16, and the 31-year-old megastar was almost entirely to thank.

The knives, sharpened earlier in the day after a frustrated Ronaldo chucked a reporter's microphone into a lake while on a morning stroll, had to be holstered for a bit.

Related - Watch: Frustrated Ronaldo throws reporter's microphone into lake

By that point, though, they had already gotten plenty of use. And, to be fair, Ronaldo brought some of that on himself.

His tirade following Portugal's disappointing 1-1 draw against tournament debutante Iceland - a nation with roughly 130-times fewer people than Ronaldo has Twitter followers - was boorish and unnecessary.

"When they don't try to play and just defend, defend, defend, this in my opinion shows a small mentality and are not going to do anything in the competition," Ronaldo said, as quoted by the Daily Mirror.

It's important to remember how such comments are born, though.

This is a man who craves success, who fiends on it. It's always been his most divisive quality. He wants to win. Not doing so is simply not an option. That's always been clear. Never more so than when Portugal conceded for the third time against the Hungarians, mere minutes after he had restored parity at 2-2.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, the sculpted superstar picked his team off the canvas once again, answering with the aforementioned headed tally. If you want the goals, you have to live with the gesticulations.

Ronaldo demands perfection from himself. Why shouldn't he push his teammates to strive for the same?

"Everyone knows Cristiano and what he can do at any time, in any minute in a game. I am 100 percent sure he will go on and score more goals now. Of course he can. No one can say anything against him. He is a fantastic player. Every time he is faced with difficult moments. He showed it again against Hungary when everyone was talking about him - he has shut them all up now," Nani said.

They'll come back, of course. Probably louder than ever.

But should Ronaldo lead his side to the ultimate glory at Euro 2016 - a prospect that looks far more realistic now by virtue of Portugal's favourable path to the final - he wouldn't need to concern himself with the detractors, or resort to throwing any more microphones into a lake.

He could simply drop one instead.

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