Ronaldo: The world’s best?

If there was anything that symbolised the importance of Cristiano Ronaldo to Portugal's footballing success, it would be the quote from the country's President, Anibal Cavaco Silva, when presenting the player with Portugal's Grand Officer of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique.

"He is an athlete of international repute now converted into a symbol of the country," Silva said.

That is quite the proclamation from a Head of State, but it is far from an overstatement. Ronaldo does not just have to live up to Portugal's immense expectations, he is the brightest light of positivity in a nation still reeling from the debilitating effects of the economic recession. In Lisbon, they are proud to announce that Portugal produced the world's best player.

The dependence on Ronaldo, whose tendinosis gave Portugal a slight scare before the World Cup kicked off, is almost unprecedented in international football. Lionel Messi and Neymar are both crucial to the success of Argentina and Brazil, respectively, but both have world-class players around them. In Portugal's case, that simply is not true.

Ronaldo's influence was epitomised during the World Cup qualifying play-off with Sweden. Touted as a personal duel between Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the latter's brace in the second leg was upstaged by the brilliance of Ronaldo, a second-half hat-trick exhibiting the pace, skill and determination of a player at his magisterial best. It was a performance that persuaded FIFA to extend the voting for the Ballon D'Or, a prize for which Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery had, until then, been clear favourite.
 
There is little doubt the relative fragility of late of the Portuguese team, whose qualifying campaign came close to unmitigated disaster. Drawn in an apparently favourable group alongside Russia and Israel, Portugal stuttered and stumbled their way to Brazil from the moment they fell behind to minnows Luxembourg in their first qualifier. Home draws with Israel and Northern Ireland were combined with defeat in Russia and a last-gasp equalizer in Tel-Aviv, and it took a Ronaldo hat-trick to spare Portuguese blushes against Northern Ireland.
 

Paulo Bento seems devoted to a 4-3-3 system (although did experiment with 4-2-3-1 during the play-off against Sweden), but is unable to call on high-performing stars in the majority of positions. Nani has been out of favour at Manchester United for the last two seasons (14 league starts from a possible 76) and none of Helder Postiga, Hugo Almeida or Nelson Oliveira have the true quality desired at the top level of the international game. Miguel Veloso will likely be relegated to a place on the bench with the much-vaunted William Carvalho taking his place, with Raul Meireles among the other likely starting midfielders.

 
If the weaknesses in Bento's squad are apparent, they only intensify the reliance on the team's obvious strength. Ronaldo will be selected as the left of three forwards, but will have a role in which he can roam anywhere and everywhere in order to impact on matches, with the central forward (likely to be Postiga) having little pressure to score goals. If Postiga can occupy two defenders and create space for Ronaldo, his mission will have been accomplished. The clichéd label of the one-man team has never rung more true.

Ronaldo's critics might suggest that the Portuguese would not want it any other way. He is viewed as arrogant, conceited and egoistical in some quarters, part athlete and part prima donna. This is a footballer that many love to hate, more divisive an individual than perhaps any other in the game today. 

In England, such distaste