Media fail to make Portuguese man-o’-sex feel welcome in Madrid

Never ones to wildly speculate or make stuff up based on thoroughly insufficient evidence, the vultures of the Spanish press seem to be circling around Cristiano Ronaldo of late.

A few weeks ago, Madrid-based daily paper Marca ran a story on their front cover claiming the Portuguese was struggling to fit into the side, and that he was therefore suffering from ‘Zidane Syndrome’. This assessment was made before La Liga 2009/10 had even started, and was thoroughly devoid of quotes or proof.

This morning, they have reintroduced their anxiety theory with the help of Jorge Valdano, the Madrid sporting director who seems to be piping up a lot more of late. He is quoted as saying:

“In the first league game I liked Cristiano.

Thanks for your concern Spain, but England’s most gifted player could probably do without the ghoulish speculation just at the moment.

As reported in last week’s Guardian, players with more than five seasons of Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s have reason to worry after fifty-one professional and amateur sportsmen died of Lou Gehrig’s disease - that’s six times more than the non-sporting national average. And now the Spanish press at Sport have taken the report and gone in search of fresh victims.

The disease is named after the great New York Yankees player, Lou Gehrig, who died of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in 1941. As conditions go, it’s horrible, causing a swift onset of paralysis, weakening of the muscles and slurring of the speech, while the mind stays perfectly tuned in. It’s fatal.