Cristiano Ronaldo’s exceptional performance in Portugal’s opening World Cup match against Spain on Friday is only one facet of his challenge to Spanish authority.
After all, the wizard soccer player appears to have just agreed to a deal with Spanish prosecutors to pay just less than $22 million in fines and accept a two-year suspended prison sentence. While Ronaldo won’t spend a day in prison (Spain has weird laws) the financial penalty follows allegations that Ronaldo engaged in a complex series of arrangements to avoid paying tax on his earnings as a player for Real Madrid. While other top flight soccer players like Lionel Messi and Neymar have also been caught up in tax controversies, Ronaldo’s offense will carry special pain in Spain.
Ronaldo’s hat trick in Friday’s match proves that he has the skill, resolve, and form to lay waste to Spanish aspirations at the World Cup. Disappointment by their 2014 failure to replicate their 2010 victory in South Africa (Spain didn’t even make it past the group stage) the Spanish see Russia as the place to show their dominance to the world. On paper, they have the quality and depth to succeed.
Except, it seems, for Cristiano “the taxman” Ronaldo. The 33-year-old appears to see himself as an heir to the heroes of 1762!
