A bitter end for Ronaldo - the icon who transformed Portugal

When a young Ronaldo first joined the squad, he arrived at camp with his baseball cap on backwards, enormous sunglasses and headphones turned up so loud they could be heard from a distance.He would not take the cap off to eat among veterans like Luis Figo and Rui Costa. Luiz Felipe Scolari saw an extraordinary player who was immature and obsessed with showing off. He reprimanded him in public, then told him privately that if he changed his attitude, he would one day captain Portugal.The first great disappointment came early, and it came at home. At 19, Ronaldo played in the final of Euro 2004 at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, in front of a country that had convinced itself the trophy was already on its way.A single headed goal by Angelos Charisteas was enough for unfancied Greece to win it by surprise. When the final whistle went, Ronaldo could not hold back the tears, and the image of the teenager crying on his own pitch travelled everywhere.It was a painful way to learn what a final costs, and it left him with a hunger that never really went away.Figo owned the number 7 at the time, so Ronaldo had to have 17. Figo helped him settle but had no intention of making it easy. When he l...