La Liga loses Cristiano Ronaldo

Forgive me. I dislike the “CR7” marketing hype as much as anyone else; I dislike the whole ‘image rights’ thing; I grew up in an era when a proper football player was a guy who was burly, had dark curly hair, and spat forcefully after clearing a ball into touch, scoring a goal, whatever. And yet.

Cristiano Ronaldo has left Real Madrid for Juventus. While I can’t be disappointed that one of our opponents most of us loved to hate—and fear, for the hatred was born of an angry respect— is gone, it’s disappointing for the league that one of the iconic players of this generation has left for Serie A. In Spain, it doesn’t matter much—most people support Real Madrid or Barcelona anyway—but in terms of international appeal, losing a bona fide star is a hard one to replace. (Memo to La Liga folks: you might want to focus a leetle more on Antoine Griezmann, Iago Aspas, etc. next year when marketing overseas...not to mention teams like Villarreal, Valencia, Sevilla and Celta).

But I digress. I’m happy to not have to face a player who, even at age 33, could turn the match on its head in one single moment. I’m disappointed not to have the opportunity to see him in La Liga, though. And it’s nice to know that in his last season with Madrid, we defeated him and drew!

Endavant Villarreal!!