TV expert settles accounts

Hamann outraged: “Ronaldo only thinks of himself!”

Dietmar "Didi" Hamann, Cristiano Ronaldo

(Bild: Sky, APA/AFP/PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA)

A clear statement from Dietmar "Didi" Hamann: the former Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Liverpool FC star has caused a stir with a hard-hitting reckoning with Cristiano Ronaldo! As a guest pundit in the studio of Irish TV station RTE, Hamann denied Portugal's former star any team spirit and accused him of pure selfishness. "He only thinks of himself!"

The trigger for the harsh words from Hamann, who always knows how to take offense with his choice of words and dogged criticism, was the performance of "CR7" in the recent European Championship round of 16 against Slovenia, which the Iberians won on penalties.

In the first 90 minutes of the game, Cristiano Ronaldo had already attracted attention by kicking (unsuccessfully) what felt like every free-kick awarded to Portugal and regularly waiting for the referee's whistle after tackles in or around the penalty area.

"As soon as you get emotional, it's over!"
But when Portugal were allowed to take a penalty in extra time and failed to beat Slovenia goalkeeper Jan Oblak, he was done for: During the break in extra time, Cristiano Ronaldo began to cry bitterly and he had to be comforted by his teammates.

"I've never seen anything like it," said Hamann, "as soon as you show emotion, as soon as you get emotional, it's over!" That was the point at which the coach should have said: "You have to come off because you're not in the right frame of mind to continue playing."

"... but that's absolute nonsense!"
Hamann gave the Portugal star credit for stepping up again in the penalty shoot-out and scoring: "But as I said before: I would have thought that Ronaldo had become a team player, but that's absolute nonsense."