Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez has offered a powerful defence of Cristiano Ronaldo, arguing that the Portuguese great’s extraordinary competitiveness and willingness to celebrate his own achievements have too often been mistaken for arrogance.
Hernandez is particularly well placed to assess the personality behind Ronaldo’s public image. The former Manchester United striker spent the 2014-15 season on loan at Real Madrid, where he shared the dressing room with Ronaldo and observed his daily habits from close quarters.
The Mexican also played alongside Rio Ferdinand at United, scoring 59 goals in 157 appearances and winning two Premier League titles. With 52 international goals, he remains Mexico’s record scorer. Speaking to Ferdinand on Rio Ferdinand Presents, Chicharito recalled hearing numerous stories about Ronaldo during his time at United before eventually discovering for himself that virtually all of them were true.
“It was unbelievable because I spoke with you in particular, and with another teammate, about Cristiano when he was at United. There were a lot of stories, and then I had the blessing of going there and becoming his teammate,” Hernandez said.
“All the stories you told me were true. He was competitive even when he was having dinner. But that competitiveness was not about arrogance. It was about him wanting to be right, not wanting to prove to you that he was better than you.”
Hernandez believes Ronaldo possesses an internal competitive switch that never turns off, allowing him to withstand the pressure attached to spending decades at football’s summit. “I think there is a switch inside him, and inside many footballers, for which there is no on and off. It is switched on all the time,” he said. “To become the best of the best of the best, you need to be the best of the best of the best every single second of your day. That is how you become capable of carrying the pressure of being the best.”
‘Cristiano was never arrogant’
Chicharito also revealed that their shared commitment to arriving early for training and undertaking additional gym work allowed him to spend time alone with Ronaldo and discover a markedly different personality from the one commonly portrayed in public.
“I have so many good stories about his human side. You know me as well. It is not that I worked as hard as Cristiano Ronaldo, but I was always the guy who arrived early for training or for the gym,” he said. “If I needed to do more work in the gym afterwards, I always did it. So I had the pleasure of spending time alone with him.
“He had been a Manchester United player and a legend, and I was a United player, so we had that in common. We had amazing conversations. He was very human and very humble. I never considered Cristiano arrogant. I think that is what people do not realise.”
Hernandez suggested Ronaldo’s blunt confidence has frequently worked against him because society is more comfortable with modesty than with an athlete openly acknowledging his own greatness. “Cristiano was always going against the tide, against everything. He always needed to fight,” he said.
“When he achieved something and you asked him, ‘Did you achieve this?’ he would say, ‘Yes, I did.’ If you asked him, ‘Do you believe you are the best?’ he would say yes because he was proving it. Society is not built for you to speak well about yourself because people see that as arrogance. For me, arrogance is when you say something that is not true. When you say, ‘I am the best’, but you have not proven it, that is arrogance. But when you are the best and you are proving it, that is different. If you do not give yourself credit and speak well about yourself, who is going to do it?”
‘They could not criticise him in the past’
The Mexican then delivered his sharpest assessment of the criticism now directed towards Ronaldo, who continues to play for Portugal and Al-Nassr at the age of 41.
“Do you know why a lot of people are starting to speak badly about him now? Because they could not do it in the past. They couldn’t,” Hernandez said. “I think a lot of people are taking advantage of the situation now because, of course, he is 41 years old. But he is 41 years old and he is still playing at that level. My God. That is why it is unfair. I do not even like having to defend him because he does not need defending. The numbers are there.”
Chicharito also rejected the tendency to praise Ronaldo by diminishing Lionel Messi, or to elevate the Argentine by belittling Ronaldo. “You do not need to put Messi down to lift Ronaldo up, and you do not need to put Ronaldo down to lift Messi up. We have both of them. We have fucking both of them,” he said. “When you praise Ronaldo by saying he is a hard worker, people interpret that as you saying he does not possess natural talent. No, no, no.
“And when you describe Messi as God-gifted, people think that means he does not work hard. No, no, no. Ronaldo has extraordinary discipline, but he also has extraordinary talent. Messi has extraordinary talent, but he also needed extraordinary discipline. They are completely different players, with different stories and different narratives. But I still believe people are a little more unfair towards Ronaldo because of his personality. Ronaldo is more outspoken, while Messi is more reserved. That gives people more things to use against Cristiano.”
