King Ronaldo Steals The Ball In Russia

"I think I've gotten many beautiful things that I no longer have any more dreams to fulfill. If you asked me if I wanted to win again, of course, I would love to win for example the World Cup, it's obvious. But if my career was to end, I would be very proud, happy. ... I never thought my career would be so beautiful."— Cristiano Ronaldo

Make no mistake, Cristiano Ronaldo is not wrong when he says he has no more dreams to fulfill, after all he has basically won all the trophies a footballer can ever win; both individual and team trophies. And neither is he contradicting himself by saying he would also love to win the World Cup because the World Cup, as players and fans alike know, is the Holy Grail of football. It is every player’s dream, especially during their formative years of childhood when the sights and sounds of past and present World Cups inundate their young hearts, ergo kindling a fire that’s so difficult to put out.

But as time goes by, it becomes clearer and clearer to many of those young dreamers that it takes more than talent, or charisma, or hard work, to be among the elite group of players that have ever lifted the World Cup for their nation. It becomes clearer and clearer to them that it actually takes team work and a bit of luck on their side to have any chance, at all.

That being said, for some footballers that dream never fades away but instead becomes more vivid and more doable as they grow older. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of sort players, who even at the ripe age of thirty-three still harbors actualizing his dream of lifting the FIFA World Cup —one day.

Some say he is darn cocky to still harbor thoughts of winning the World Cup at his age, as well as make such smart-ass comments of not having any dream anymore to fulfill. Isn’t it that obvious?

Cristiano Ronaldo is a cocky dreamer and who can fault him. On the one hand, he is clearly saying that he has enough trophies in his cabinet —actually, his museum in his home city of Funchal, Madeira— let alone records upon records of goal scoring achievements that will remain unchallenged for years and years to come. On the other hand, he is saying if he had his way he would have already won the World Cup by handpicking his own dream team made up of elite individuals from other nations. And since that’s not feasible, he just has to make do by still dreaming and hoping that his countrymen will one day live up to his high standards and come up with the goods.

Tonight, the highly anticipated Group B FIFA World Cup 2018 match between Spain and Portugal kicked off at exactly 6 P.M (GMT) inside Fischt Olympic stadium, Sochi amidst the carnival atmosphere of diehard fans all bedecked in their favorite jerseys, pledging allegiance to their team.

Well, really and truly, it lived up to the star billing as both teams strutted their stuff by trying to outfox, outwit, outrun, and outmuscle each other.

After all said and done, when the final whistle brought the game to a close, the giant scoreboard displayed three goals apiece to Spain and to Portugal. An entertaining draw, no doubt but one that will forever live long in the hearts of football fans from Jakarta to Johannesburg, from Accra to Ankara, from Lagos to Los Angeles, and the world over, because a certain goal king, Cristiano Ronaldo scored not once, not twice, but thrice within 90minutes of an enthralling, tantalizing, nail-biting, nerve-racking, blockbuster encounter.

A penalty, a snap shot, and a sumptuous free kick —which was tailor-made in Portugal and hand-delivered in Russia— was how the man fondly called, CR7, announced himself to the whole world in his first match of this on-going FIFA World Cup.

It was the 51st hat-trick of his illustrious career, as well as the 51st hat trick the FIFA World Cup has seen in its 88-year history.

It was a thing of beauty. It was a thing of class. It was a thing of absolute wonder.

Russia, a country well-known for the beautiful game of chess, had just witnessed a sterling performance from the Best Player on the planet, and what better way to show appreciation to this talented player than to offer him the ideal environment needed to fulfill his lifelong dream of winning the World Cup.

For such a talented and outstanding player who has scored in no less than four editions of the FIFA World Cup, Russia, the land of chess grandmasters, might just be the place where his boyhood dream finally comes true.

But like the chess grandmasters of our time, he just has to think at least five moves ahead and ensure that no matter what happens in the course of this tournament, his king isn’t captured.