Cristiano Ronaldo – life in the sporting pressure cooker

Football is getting its shoelaces in a tangle what with the Qatari debacle in the vagina-shaped stadium (go read Marina Hyde, Guardian) and now the greatest footballer of all time Cristiano Ronaldo falling out with Manchester United. He gave an unsanctioned interview to Piers Morgan on Talk TV slating the manager Erik Ten Hag, the owners, the club’s infrastructure and former United figures. If lawyers find it violated the terms of his contract it could end his £500,000 a week deal seven months early without compensation, which would leave him free to sign for another club when the transfer window opens in January.

He first signed with Manchester United in 2003, aged 18, winning the FA Cup in his first season, followed by three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup. He then moved to Real Madrid and Juventus before returning to Manchester United in 2021. He will captain Portugal at the World Cup in Qatar.

  Born 5 February 1985 10.20 am Funchal, Portugal, Ronaldo is a Sun Aquarius opposition a Leo Moon and square an intense Taurus North Node. He also has a ramped up Venus Mars in Aries inconjunct Pluto which has, no doubt, pushed him into superhuman efforts but won’t make relationships with authority figures easy.

 Manchester United, 24 April 1902, is a half-good fit with him since the MU Jupiter is conjunct his Sun carrying him to greater glory. But the MU Taurus Sun is also opposition hi Pluto for a running power struggle. Erik Ten Hag, 2 February 1970, has his Jupiter conjunct Ronaldo’s Pluto and his Pluto opposition Ronaldo’s Mars Venus so it was never going to be a harmonious fit.

  The relationship chart between Man United and Ronaldo is friendly and business-like with a composite Sun Venus square Saturn – but tr Neptune is chipping away at the foundations of trust over the coming year.

 Ronaldo ahead looks jolted and jangled over the coming three months, then facing a run of catastrophes at the same time as being on the receiving end of copious amount of money as tr Pluto is conjunct his Jupiter from February 2023 and these two entirely contradictory influences run on through 2024 as well.

  His spirits will pick up from late January 223 as Jupiter moves across his Ascendant so another lucrative transfer looks likely. 2026 looks to be the time when he decide to hang up his boots and refocus his career and life.

10 thoughts on “Cristiano Ronaldo – life in the sporting pressure cooker

  1. Hyper talented but comes across as far too smug and arrogant. That Aqua Sun opp Leo moon combination really coming to the fore with his “statue” goal celebration essentially seeming to say “Focus your attention on me and fall at my feet”. Of course that’s true of all goal celebrations to some extent but some players are able to acknowledge the contribution of teammates and celebrate WITH them.

    Transiting Uranus really ramped up the pressure these past months. As far as I can understand he’s been wanting out all season, so he’s been getting more and more unprofessional until it became untenable to keep him. He’s got it and to what cost? Losing his paypacket for a few weeks isn’t a disaster given he must be worth a couple of hundred million. His next team will probably pay less but he doesn’t have many years left anyway. A little bit of trouble at the end of a career won’t damage his legacy. Once again, the universe doesn’t seem to be delivering any consequences for bad behaviour.

    • Earlier in the year Ronaldo lost a baby son.

      For someone super human like him I’m sure it served as more than a reality check. I’m not saying the tragedy was a “consequence for bad behaviour”, but along aside his much publicised pay packages, he’s been dealing with a number of very legitimate personal and family issues.

      • Good point, I’d forgotten that. It’s very sad for him. Big reality check. Having a lot of money and being adulated for being good at football can never compensate for something like that.

        • It is very sad, I agree. The babies were twins, and the girl survived. His other children, twins (2017) and a son (2010), were born to surrogates.

          • A lot of people around the singer-extraordinaire Prince said that after his baby boy passed in 1996, he was never quite the same again. And it’s understandable. For normal, regular parents losing a baby is soul shattering. But for these wealthy men who are worshipped, who are international icons, who’ve gotten everything they’ve wanted for years and years, it must completely and utterly reset them psychologically to lose a child.

          • Jane – interesting he has two children by surrogates. I don’t know the circumstances behind that but he has Saturn in 8th which would suggest a difficulty in the sex life.

            JY – he has Leo moon in 5th and Cancer on the 4th house. I’d say it will be especially difficult for him.

          • I wonder if we’ll see changes and developments with surrogacy once Pluto is in Aquarius? Weirdly, I do know two Aquarian men (in two separate heterosexual marriages) whose child was born to a surrogate. It’s also an increasingly popular option for celebrities apparently. It is expensive, so not everyone can choose to go that route.
            Historically, a less organised practice existed – people simply ‘gave’ children they couldn’t afford to relatives or better-off childless couples. There was a great deal of informal adoption, as people are now discovering via DNA testing kits and family history research.

            And thinking about history – for centuries, infant mortality was high – both for new babies, young children, and teenagers. Almost every family group (including aunts, uncles, cousins etc) has a number of instances, well into the 20th century. The wealthy and privileged did not escape either. So there’s a symbolic river of collective grief and loss running through human society somewhere in our psyches I think.

          • It’ll be interesting to see Jane. Archetypally I’d see Aquarius as a childless, barren sign. The world population is ageing and birth rate declining – for many reasons, part of which involves lower fertility rates, but the Uranus/Neptune in Aqua generation don’t seem too interested in getting too close either. At least not like I recall teenagers doing in my day.

            Incidentally I was reading this week the 8th billion person has just been born. #7 was in 2011, #6 in 2000 and #5 in 1985. The 9 billionth is expected in 15 years time but #10 in 2080 !! I wonder if they’ve built in the preponderance of Aquarius this century

          • GD – another Aquarian thing I thought of – the aging population may well be ‘looked after’ by AI in the not so distant future. Not a very happy thought in many ways, but it’s coming!

  2. Thanks Marjorie. Perhaps Ronaldo is feeling the effects of the Lunar Eclipse, plus the tr Uranus square to his Sun? At this stage in his career he’ll be thinking of what’s next, he’s 37 now and inevitably slowing down. Interesting to see the Aries Mars and Venus – the artful and graceful athlete? Yet they’re inconjunct Pluto in Scorpio. More Mars-ruled energy perhaps, but never easy. Not surprised by Mars square Neptune either – I recognise his amazing skills, but dislike him. He has a very sneaky, sulky side.
    Lionel Messi (Argentina) is my choice for one of the very best current players of all time. 24th June, 1987. His Mars is in Cancer, square a sporty Jupiter in Aries. Mars is also inconjunct Uranus at 24 Sagittarius. This could reflect his struggles as a child with a growth hormone deficiency. He remains a small, slight man.

    A ‘challenged’ Mars intrigued me, so I checked Maradona (Argentina) another mesmerising – and infamous- star player in footballing history. 30th October, 1960 – he has Mars in Cancer opposite Saturn in Capricorn.

    And, forgive me, but I’m fascinated by this potential pattern – the all-time astonishing Brazilian, Pele. 21st October 1940 – a very great athlete and player indeed. Pele has Mars in Libra, inconjunct a Jupiter/Saturn conjunction in Taurus.

    Not a full survey! But interesting to think about the importance of the inconjunct aspect, and also other potentially challenging aspects to Mars for athletes, and the rest of us too.

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