Kieran Shannon: Ronaldo falls foul to a classic case of narcissistic injury

In the interview Ronaldo displayed all the classic symptoms of narcissistic injury, just as throughout his career he has given us plenty of clues that he was an undoubted narcissist

NARCISSISTIC TENDANCIES: Cristiano Ronaldo smiles as he arrives for a Portugal soccer team training session in Oeiras, outside Lisbon. Pic: AP Photo/Armando Franca

Here’s someone anyway who didn’t think I’d ever mention one Mr Trump and Cristiano Ronaldo in the same article, let alone the same sentence, but it was unavoidable once the Donald’s niece Mary in her capacity as a psychologist as well as author observed yesterday that her uncle had suffered an extensive case of “narcissistic injury” following the mid-term elections Stateside.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, the narcissist experiences such a phenomenon when they “lose or are abandoned or criticised”.

A Dr Karyl McBride, an expert in the field, has further expanded on the condition. “We have all felt abandoned or rejected at times and most of us get over it with a little time and processing of our feelings – we move on. But the narcissist does not. The issues remain in their mind. ‘It’s all your fault.’ ‘How could you do this to me?’ … They may react with disdain, rage, or defiant counterattack.” 

You wouldn’t have to be a professional psychologist yourself, merely an amateur one, to deduce that by giving the interview that he did to Piers Morgan, Ronaldo displayed all the classic symptoms of narcissistic injury, just as throughout his career he has given us plenty of clues that he was an undoubted narcissist.

The writer Juan Villoro noted a litany of them in his 2015 study of The Curious Case of Cristiano Ronaldo. How he wouldn’t celebrate goals he hadn’t a hand in; “his individual achievements always come above those of the group”. Even when he scored a brace of goals against Granada during the 2011-2012 he refrained from any act of jubilation, supposedly feeling scorned that Real Madrid president Florentino Perez didn’t attend the Balon D’Or ceremony days earlier when Ronaldo had been nominated but ultimately pipped by Lionel Messi.

And yet, as irritating and unlikeable a quality as his narcissism was, it was also forgivable, and ultimately outshone by his even more gargantuan talent and desire. “His mannerisms are shocking, but what of it?” as Villoro surmised in that same piece. “In mass culture, vanity works. Had Mick Jagger been a humble man, the Stones would have ended up playing in a garage somewhere.” 

Now though, his narcissism has crossed from being merely shocking to unacceptable. At least you’d have to think Manchester United won’t accept it, nor their fans. And that is the shame of it. Ronaldo’s legacy itself isn’t particularly tarnished. He’s accumulated such a body of work, including how he raged against age in the noblest and most effective manner, still banging in all those goals for Juventus and Portugal after he was closer to 40 than 30, for this to be a mere footnote; who when we see on a daily basis old footage of Maradona on his pomp go viral on social media dwells on the final days in Napoli, Sevilla, with Argentina? It merely affects where you place him on football’s Mount Rushmore, not whether he belongs on Mount Rushmore, and so it is with Ronaldo.

But where the Portuguese is now ranked and more importantly viewed in the Manchester United pantheon by the Manchester United following is another matter. Roy Keane may have left on bad terms after another explosive interview but that was only one bad day over 12-and-a-half years. The last time the United faithful had seen him on a matchday was still giving it his all against Liverpool. Ronaldo has been an awful three weeks, three months, in truth, a bad 12, 15 months. His United legacy, and his relationship with its fanbase, has been tarnished in a way you’d like to say neither party deserved but which ultimately his narcissism decided.

Again, it’s a quality that the Stretford End and indeed the Old Trafford dressing room would have long been familiar with. In the 2008 Champions League final he was the only United player to score during the game itself and the only one to miss in the penalty shootout. When Edwin van der Sar saved Nicolas Anelka’s penalty, Ronaldo, instead of running towards van der Sar along with his ecstatic teammates, stayed on the ground in the centre circle, stretched out, face down. As his biographer Guillem Balague wrote, “We will never know if he wanted to be the centre of attention but some players took his gesture in that way. Gary Neville went up to him to demand he celebrate with the team but Ronaldo was enjoying the success in his own little world… overcome by a childish sob combining tears of relief and happiness.” 

And yet they were happy to put up with it. Not just because of his extraordinary talent and output, but because as Villoro found in that study, people who had gotten close to him suggested a “caring, somewhat naïve individual who just had a one-track mind – the game is the single thing he cares about”; in other words, or at least those of Roy Keane, he was at heart “a good lad”.

Ultimately now though his ego has got the better of his heart as he’s lashed out at not just Ten Hag, poor Ralf Rangnick but also sadly his once partner in crime, Wayne Rooney. Even though Ten Hag offered him an olive branch only 10  days ago by offering him the captain’s armband, even though Rooney and himself combined for all those goals and trophies back when they were the best young tandem in the world.

But then Ten Hag also didn’t subsequently include him in the starting 11. Rooney, who in his criticism offered so many qualifiers in defence of Ronaldo it barely qualified as criticism, had the temerity to say age had caught up with him. The likes of McBride talk about narcissistic supply; how to stay in the good books with the narcissist you’ve to offer them all forms of reinforcement. And in his eyes they were no longer sources of such supply. And so they’re now in his bad books, they’ve been lashed out at, because like the Donald he’s suffering an extreme case of narcissistic injury.

Unlike Trump, football's history books will still be good to Ronaldo. But he may have lost his place on the Premier League and Old Trafford Mount Rushmore.