Home   >   News   >   Ronaldo’s eyelids: Sparking transfer rumors for ten years

Ronaldo’s eyelids: Sparking transfer rumors for ten years

By on November 5, 2015

There is a certain way to wink with maximum effect and swagger; just a gentle bat of the eye, so the subject(s) of your trickery can’t tell if you have actually winked or not. Cristiano Ronaldo has mastered this trade.

Hasten to remember his infamous wink following Wayne Rooney’s red card at the 2006 World Cup, an incident that sent the English press to its boiling point. Ronaldo’s wink, a cheeky little bat of an eye in the direction of the Portugal substitutes bench, sent the froth of media speculation and rumors into a frenzy.

In his autobiography, Wayne Rooney described the incident: “Down to 10 men, England then went out on pens and all hell broke loose – everyone immediately decided that Ronaldo and I were the best of enemies, and his wink would spell trouble for United in the coming months.

“I knew what was in store, so when I bumped into him in the tunnel after the game I gave him a heads up.

“‘The fans will be going mad over this one,’ I said. ‘They’ll be trying to make a big deal of it, so we’ll just have to get on with things as -normal because there will be talk all summer.’

“He understood, he’s a bright lad, but not long afterwards the papers reckoned he was off to Real Madrid; apparently me and him weren’t talking, which was absolute rubbish. The truth is I like Ronaldo, always have done. He’s a good lad and great to have around the dressing room.”

Rumors had it that the incident fractured the Manchester United teammates’ relationship, which sparked a circus of transfer rumors surrounding Ronaldo and Real Madrid. The tabloids afforded themselves a nice pat on the back when Ronaldo signed for Madrid, erm, three years later. In between, Ronaldo won the treble with United and enjoyed the glories of the Ballon d’Or.

But nine-and-a-half years later, after multiple attempts to squash the rumors from both players, the topic still occasionally resurfaces, mainly in the context of perennial rumors of Ronaldo’s potential return to United. The correlation between the Google search term “Ronaldo wink” and “Ronaldo transfer” (seen below) is uncanny. The dead horse apparently still has Twitter shares left in it.

This week, Ronaldo’s eyelid has set the pulse of the football media racing again, with the Portuguese superstar having winked at Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, after Madrid’s 1-0 Champions League victory over PSG in Paris. This followed a brief interaction with PSG coach Laurent Blanc on the touchline, in which Ronaldo whispered in the coach’s ear. The daredevil! Apparently the tabloids have forgotten that all footballers tend to cover their mouths while speaking after the match to avoid those dastardly lip-readers.

You’ll be reminded of this when Ronaldo leaves Madrid, in a few years.

With the upcoming release of a documentary on a year in the life of Ronaldo (timing a coincidence?) from the makers of Senna and Amy, Ronaldo doesn’t shy away from any sort of publicity. He’s had us again.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.