So… listen… I know this sounds almost fake, but 19 years
ago, back before Messi had even debuted for Barcelona, Ronaldo was already playing his
first international final… Nowadays, it’s hard to picture a world where
those two aren’t seen as football gods, but before that tournament, Ronaldo was only
a rotation player at United, he had only scored 12 goals over his whole career and had only
once played the full 90 for portugal… But the thing is… it was there that everything
changed… Once the tournament was done, everyone in
Europe knew his name, he was easily the highest rated wonderkid in the world and would place
12th in the Ballon D’Or at the end of the year… And I know that sounds like a success, but
in reality, I truly believe that to this day, that tournament, that final is the biggest
tragedy of his career… Because that day Portugal became the only
host nation in the history of the European Championship to reach the final and come out
defeated… And even more personally for Ronaldo, not
only was it his first… but it was the last tournament his father would get to watch before
passing away… As Ronaldo would say, “He used to tell his
friends that his son would become the best in the world… Now I’ve won all of these trophies and he
didn’t get to see any of that”... Still, even though by the time Portugal reached
the final things seemed almost destined to be, with everything coming together… At first, it was a complete mess… You see, after a disastrous world cup in 2002,
where the golden generation didn’t even make it out of the group stage, the federation
was so desperate to make sure such a disaster wouldn’t repeat at the 2004 Euros, that
they sacked their manager and went straight ahead and signed the coach who had just won
the world cup… they just took him… But then… well… things didn’t improve… After 15 matches in charge, Scolari had only
managed to win less than half of them… It didn’t seem like the golden generation
would be getting their hands on some silver any time soon… And to make things worse, the fans weren’t
even on their side. Some were upset that Brazilian born Deco had
been included in the squad, as they felt he was only joining because of Scolari, others
were upset over the cost of hosting the tournament… I mean it was a half a billion dollar investment
in a country regarded as the poorest in western europe. They were literally building 10 stadiums for
a 16 team competition… it made no sense… In an attempt to shake things up, Scolari
began turning his back on some of the golden boys, sending João Pinto and Sergio Conceição
away in favor of the likes of Quaresma and Simão… but none of that even came close
to being as important to what happened next… One day Scolari was just going about his business
when Mortosa, who had just gotten back from watching and under 18 match came up to him
in a rush, looking all flustered and told him “My goodness, Filipe, they have a kid
over there, a winger… he’s like a horse… just out of this world, he’s strong, he’s
fast” and Scolari interrupts him and tells him “calm down man, we have Figo and Quaresma
in that position, we don’t need that kid”... and so Mortosa replied “You don’t get
it… This one… he’s a phenomenon… we have to call him up”... Despite his insistence, Scolari moved on without
thinking much of that conversation, it wouldn’t be there that he’d become familiarized with
the name Cristiano Ronaldo… But over the next two months, that kid, he
made sure he’d remember his name… In fact, soon after that conversation, Ronaldo’s
name was even left out of the team sheet for the under 19 european championship… that’s
how much of a question mark he still was in the heads of many of the scouts… Some were convinced they had struck gold,
others thought he was just another 17 year old winger with some flicks and tricks… But regardless, when a month later the chance
to play the Toulon Tournament came up, the ones who believed in him put their foot down,
managed to get his name on the team sheet and… what can I say… Ronaldo didn’t just take part, he took over
and won the whole thing… By the end of the tournament he was the star
and everyone who opposed his call up to the european championship was regretting every
single one of their words now that it was too late to make any amends to the team sheet… And trust me it only got worse when Portugal
made it all the way to the final, only to lose to Italy, the same team Ronaldo had beaten
to the title, just 3 weeks before… From there on out, maybe it was his renewed
confidence that led him to keep on blowing past expectations, but with every pre-season
friendly at Sporting, Ronaldo seemed better and better, until the time to meet Man Utd
came up… And well everyone knows what happened there… Ronaldo forced legends of the game to bow
down to a teenager and admit defeat, humiliating United with a 3 to 1 win… By the time Ronaldo got home, his phone must
have been already buzzing, because United knew one thing… They weren’t gonna be able to beat this
guy, so they might as well have him on their team… And obviously once he became the most expensive
teenager in Premier League history, Scolari was more than convinced that Mortosa was right,
this kid was a phenomenon and above all he was his light at the end of the tunnel, his
secret weapon to turn their fate around at the Euros… If just a while back it was a matter of opinion
whether or not he should join the under 19s, now his call up to the main team wasn’t
even up for debate… Right on his first match, even the golden
boys could tell he would shine brighter than all of them and as he kept running full speed
at the opposition’s defense over and over again, some even worried for him… Fernando Couto would even be seen yelling
onto the pitch “Breathe, kid, breathe”... They could see he was different beast, in
the locker room he was never once shy, even there he kept on playing trying to dribble
his teammates, he’d go into the showers to play footvolley, they say, at times, he
would go so hard that by the time they were supposed to head to the tunnel he would already
be drenched in sweat… Scolari would literally have to lock the ballbags
away so that he would get some rest… But if his mentality was already on another
level, it was only helped by the players he had alongside him, as Scolari would say “His
teammates enabled his mentality, they weren’t annoyed by him, they were amused… they handed
him the ball and said “there you go kid, make some magic, we’re here to help you”... They were more than a team, they were family. And thanks to that, even through all the disappointments
in the preparation matches, everyone went into the Euros, believing that after the 15
years of unfulfilled potential since they had won the under 20 world cup, the new blood
could help them make history. But then, they went into the opening match
against Greece, with the world watching and once again let everyone down…
7 minutes in they were already losing, at half time Ronaldo came on… but as Costinha
would say “he was so eager to make a change, he was going so hard at every ball that he
made a mistake”... Ronaldo conceded a penalty… He would still go on to score before the match
ended… but that wasn’t enough to ease the pain… Portugal simply had to win those kinds of
matches… I mean, before the tournament, one of the
Greek players had admitted their only goal was to “try to win a match” and Portugal
simply allowed them to run over them like that? Something had to change and so Scolari took
some desperate measures… First he gathered the team in the bus and
gave them a reality check: “You know what this means? We’re already in the knockouts… we had
one chance to mess up and now it’s gone”... And once that was done, he made one decision
that would completely change the course of the tournament. He looked at his bench and realized he had
3 Champions League winners sitting on the sidelines… So he began starting every single one of those
players and things instantly changed… Only 7 minutes into the second match, 2 of
them, Deco and Maniche combined for the first goal… Then Ronaldo came in late and assisted Rui
Costa for the second… Just like that, the only team standing between
them and the knockout stages was none other than their eternal rivals Spain… A team they hadn’t beaten in 23 years… Regardless, by halftime, the match was still
locked at a goalless draw and that’s when something odd happened, the Spanish coach
began yelling onto the pitch, warning his players that Russia had unexpectedly defeated
Greece, meaning that if both teams settled for a draw, they would both go through… Puyol began bargaining with Portuguese striker
Nuno Gomes… but maybe it was because he wanted first place, maybe it was because of
the rivalry, but towards the end of the match, it was him who broke the deadlock scoring
an incredible goal to send Spain out of the tournament… However what they didn’t know then, was
that scoring that goal meant Greece was through to the knockout stage… Yeah, I guess you could say that karma would
strike very soon… Regardless, back then, there was no time to
think of that, because the following match would be a legendary one… Portugal vs England… One golden generation vs the other… but
very different paths towards the tournament… While Portugal struggled, England hadn’t
lost a single match in their qualifying campaign… Even if we had Ronaldo, Figo, Rui Costa and
Deco, they had Rooney, Owen Gerrard and Lampard… It would be far from easy… and 3 minutes
into the match, that was confirmed… Owen had already scored… I gotta be honest, things got pretty scary
at that point, especially when the game hit the 1 hour mark with no changes to the score,
it seemed no matter how much Cristiano bullied Ashley Cole nothing would change, but then
Scolari had maybe his greatest stroke of genius of the tournament… Over a period of 16 minutes, he made 3 changes,
he subbed off his defensive midfielder to sub in Simão, a young, hungry creative genius,
then he subbed out Figo for Postiga, adding another goal scoring threat up front, while
opening up more space for Simão on the wing and finally he risked it all, bringing out
one of his defenders in favor of Rui Costa… Portugal were all-in… And 4 minutes later, it was exactly Simão
who assisted Postiga for the goal that would send the match into extra time and once there,
it was Rui Costa who put Portugal in front with a signature magnificent strike… Scolari was 3 for 3, it was an in-game managerial
masterclass… Everyone involved deserved a win, but then
Lampard scored and the game was sent into penalties… and the shootout was a true blockbuster… Beckham skied it, so did Rui Costa, Ronaldo
smacked it in with no regard for what was on the line, Postiga hit the panenka and then
Ricardo pulled off one of my all time favorite footballing moments… With the shootout going into sudden death,
Ricardo gets heated, takes off his gloves, saves the next penalty, tells Nuno Valente
to stand back, warning him that he would be the one to take the next one… and he scores,
sending Portugal onto the semi finals… That was simply one of the most badass things
I’ve ever seen… And it was at that moment that everyone truly
began to believe that anything was possible… And rightfully in the next game, in the semi
finals vs the Netherlands, Portugal dropped maybe their most impressive performance and
of course at the center of it all was Cristiano Ronaldo… Every time he touched the ball you could feel
the fans rising up from their seats… And then in one blow, 26 minutes into the
match, he floated above the defense and headed in the opener, taking off his shirt and celebrating
like he was already the best in the world… Imagine the audacity… As Pauleta would say “What a son of a bitch,
he’s just different… a monster, doing something like that at that
age… that’s not for everybody”... Right then, everyone realized he wasn’t
just a great player, we were looki ng at one of the greatest entertainers in sports history… And of course he didn’t stop there… At around the hour mark, the ball goes out
for a corner… It should’ve been Figo taking it, but once
again that audacity kicked in, Ronaldo grabbed the ball and took the corner so quickly that
by the time the camera crew caught up to what was going on… the ball had hit the net… With the assist from Ronaldo, Maniche had
scored one of the greatest goals in the history of the euros… And with Jorge Andrade scoring an own goal
5 minutes later, let me tell you… if it wasn’t for Ronaldo’s defiance… We may have never made it to the final… But thanks to him, following semi final defeats
to England in 66 and France in 84 and 2000, Portugal had finally made it to an international
final… All that was left to do was beat Greece and
seize the moment… Going into the final, the sentiment was much
different from before the tournament started… By getting past every adversity, the team
had completely won over the hearts of the people… Those final weeks transcended just football,
suddenly the euros were more than an event… They changed Portugal, they defined a decade
and at that moment, the entire country was behind them… Scolari asked the people to hang flags on
their balconies and suddenly it was hard to even find a store that hadn’t run out of
stock… it is estimated that 5 million flags were
hung… That’s more than 1 flag for every family
in the country… It was complete euphoria… And when the team bus drove off on its way
to the stadium… Well… no one will ever forget those images… There were fans everywhere, those who had
planes watched from above, those who had boats waited by the bridge, there were people on
horseback, there were people on motorcycles, there wasn’t even any need to close off
traffic on the highway… Everyone stopped just to catch a glimpse of
their heroes and honestly, it was hard to tell who was more in awe, the people or the
heroes themselves who couldn’t believe the amount of love they were receiving… As Rui Costa said “The whole country carried
us in their arms all the way to the stadium”... After beating Spain, England and the Netherlands,
there was a sense that Portugal could not lose, let alone to Greece… Before that year, they had never won a single
match at a major tournament… hell! they hadn’t even scored a goal… In the eyes of many, they had no right to
be there… Quoting the Guardian, they were “the only
underdogs in history that everyone wanted to see get beaten”... Greece had made their
way to the final while averaging 48 tackles per match, never beating a single team by
more than one goal, all of their knockout stage goals came from crosses to the box… They were defined by boring play, tactical
rigidity and discipline. To the average football fan, they were nothing
more than anti-football… But in reality, as I’ve said many times
there is beauty in ugly football… As much of a paradox as that may seem, the
Greeks were truly special, the lack of flair was replaced with an unbreakable bond, they
weren’t 300, but they were 23 men who through sheer grit and persistence had managed to
land themselves at the top of the footballing world, there were a band of inglorious renegades
with no regard for the system, they weren’t anti football, they were anti culture and
being know as Piratiko, meaning the Pirate Ship it was only right that they would be
the ones to pillage all of the silverware, to sink the heroes of the sea… Once the match got going, it shouldn’t have
been of no shock to anyone that 9 minutes in, the time wasting had already started and
even less that it would all be defined by one single goal, an ugly one, a cross into
the box… It was their only corner of the match, their
only shot on target but also all that they needed to make that match the greatest tragedy
in Portuguese football history… And as with any Greek tragedy, it ended in
tears… The cameras closed in on Ronaldo and the kid
simply could not stop crying… At the time, it was devastating, but looking
back now there’s something marvelous about it… because as Costinha said “It’s funny
they got those tears on camera, that was the moment a star was born”... And if you doubt its significance, let me
tell you one final thing… When Ronaldo got to the locker room, he watched
as most of the golden generation claimed they wasted the country's final chance at glory… He stood up and told them “I know this won’t
be the last one”... Once again, he was defiant…
