There have been two instances at this World Cup where naked greed, ambition, and ego have led to ruin. Thus far.
Everyone thinks Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest players to ever touch a football. Multiple Ballon D’Or (player of the year), medals in La Liga, Champions League, Premier League and Serie A. He’s done it all, apart from the World Cup. This year’s Portugal squad was very, very strong. But lo and behold, they didn’t make it past the quarterfinal. Again.
There is lots of reasons why a team doesn’t win, but the clearest one was Ronaldo’s INSISTENCE that he play every minute as striker, even though his 41 year old legs are clearly past it, and he just isn’t the player he was. Meanwhile, Goncalo Ramos, recent Ligue Un and Champions League winner with PSG, was sitting on the bench, twiddling his thumbs, waiting for the inevitable knockout.
Ronaldo should have been in the squad, 100%. But his desire to be the main character, essentially his ego, more or less screwed everything up.
An individual repeat of that happened yesterday in the England-Norway game. Norway, firm underdogs, had a two on one scenario. Two Norwegian players, one English defender. All the Norwegian had to was pass the ball to Haaland, perhaps the best player in the world, but instead they went for glory, and missed. It was 1-1 at that time; England would end up winning 2-1 in extra time. I don’t even remember the name of the guy who screwed it up, but I’m sure plenty of people in Oslo do.
You have to have an ego to be a star. To look at a statistically impossible dream, and to think that you are the exception, is unusual behavior. But left unchecked, it can lead to ruin.
With four games left, I think we will see it again. Watch out.