Cristiano Ronaldo: 6 games that defined the Real Madrid superstar's career

1. Real Madrid vs Kashima Antlers – Final, Club World Cup 2016

Again, he was not at his best that day... and the man scored a hattrick and walked away with the man-of-the-match award. He’s been like this for a while now, all failed dribbles and half-stepovers that really have no effect whatsoever – but at the end of the day he wins Madrid the match.

Sure, he’s had moments of brilliance... one even got me to write this: Cristiano Ronaldo, an elastico, and the beauty of a singular moment, but those have come far and few between. And no game defined what Ronaldo has now become – a pure goal-scoring, game-winning machine shorn of all unnecessary adornments and flashes of that old trickster – quite like this one.

The goals were typical Ronaldo – the first a ruthlessly dispatched penalty, the second a wonderfully neat finish that came at the end of a lovely run that caught Kashima unaware and the third a superb poacher’s finish delivered with trademark flourish into the roof of the net.