Managing Ronaldo has been Zidane's big success

Managing Ronaldo has been Zidane's big success

Cristiano Ronaldo, mejor jugador de la final de la Champions
Cristiano Ronaldo, mejor jugador de la final de la Champions | sport

It's no longer all about Cristiano Ronaldo, but on Saturday that meant it could, once again, be all about Ronaldo. It should be seen as no coincidence that Real Madrid's success has coincided with Zinedine Zidane managing the Portuguese star's minutes and putting more faith in other players. Ronaldo is still the headline act and he's come up with the goods and the goals when it’s mattered, but he has benefitted from having a supporting cast who now feel they, too, are part of the production. 

That has not always been the case and in the past Madrid have perhaps been guilty of pandering to Ronaldo's needs. It padded the 32-year-old's stats as he focused on individual glory and hoped that would lead to collective glory. Invariably it did not and it’s incredible to think how little success Madrid had in his early years at the club considering how successful Ronaldo was on an individual level. All he had to show for his first four seasons -- taking into account only La Liga and the Champions League -- at the Bernabeu was one league title (of course that was also conditioned by a brilliant Barcelona side). In the following four seasons, though, he's added another league and, incredibly, three Champions League trophies. Three of those four have been won since Zidane took over; the other came under Carlo Acnelotti, with Zidane as his assistant in 2014.

One of Zidane's many achievements, then, is being able to convince an ageing Ronaldo that sometimes it’s best not to play every minute of every game and score every goal. That achievement has allowed two things to happen. It’s permitted the best Ronaldo to turn up at the business end of the campaign and it’s forced other players to take steps forward. And Madrid’s strength in depth has been one of the keys to their success. Ronaldo is no longer the only star on the team -- some may even argue he’s not even their best player anymore -- but he’s one of many in an extremely good team of expensive footballers. And that’s played out in Madrid’s favour.