World Cup schadenfreude: revelling in Ronaldo’s tears and US thrashing

July 6 at the 2026 World Cup was a time for schadenfreude.

Delight in Cristiano Ronaldo’s tears. Joy in the US being knocked out. Revelling in others’ demise is extremely immature, but in certain cases it is worthwhile to be ensconced in the pleasure of the misery of others.

Let’s start with CR7.

Ronaldo, Portugal’s now-departed head coach Roberto Martinez and the Portuguese football authorities all bear responsibility for wasting one of the most talented squads at this year’s tournament.

A competition in which they should have been genuine contenders instead witnessed Portugal’s players seemingly beholden to Ronaldo, always trying to find him with a pass, when it was clear he no longer had the mobility they needed. It was after a tepid display against the Democratic Republic of Congo in his team’s opening match that Ronaldo should have been consigned to the bench.

Martinez didn’t do so. Then came the “I’m back” retort — to TV cameras, of course — after he’d scored against football giants Uzbekistan.

Martinez had the chance to learn how much better Portugal were without Ronaldo after the fortunate escape against Croatia in the round of 32. There he did substitute the 41-year-old with 10 minutes to play and saw Portugal play better and score.

Instead of sticking with that strategy against Spain on Monday, Martinez left Ronaldo on for all 97-minutes, made five other substitutions and watched his team lose. Ronaldo’s international career is, hopefully for his national teammates, over.

“I gave my all,” he said afterwards. “I won three titles with Portugal. Before Cristiano, Portugal had never won a big trophy. The best trophy I won with the national team was 2016, which for me has the same dimension as the World Cup.”

I, me and speaking about himself in the third person. Hardly a team man. His tears afterwards seemed so performative, and those in the stadium noted that none of his teammates came over to him on the field, instead choosing to leave.

As if Ronaldo’s exit wasn’t sufficient, the Belgians then dished out a can of, as Americans like to call it, “whip ass” in Seattle. This was one of the most charged matches of the World Cup and all because the US president chose to insert himself in the competition.

Donald Trump had been schtum for the past few weeks, focusing on the tasteless 250-year anniversary celebrations and his ballroom.

The only World Cup mention from him related to the record number of fans who had watched the group stage. Of course, in Trump’s eyes it was because America is great and not that there were more teams involved. Canada and Mexico, also hosts, didn’t get a mention.

Then he hurled his bloviating stupidity into the biggest event on the planet, insisting Fifa overturn a red card incurred by US forward Folerin Balogun.

Fifa, whose president Gianni Infantino had given Trump a “peace prize” just before Trump had his military kidnap a Venezuelan president and a month before he launched missiles for months at another tournament participant, acquiesced.

Balogun’s red card suspension was suspended. It was unprecedented. It wasn’t the same as Ronaldo’s suspension, as some mentioned. That happened before the tournament. Trump’s intervention opened a can of worms that risks dragging Fifa into a disciplinary and legal quagmire.

Sporting integrity be damned. The rest of the world understandably seethed. Waking up to Belgium winning 4-1 and thus knocking out the US was very satisfying.

“Overturn this,” chirped the Belgium team’s official social media accounts. Americans raged at the apparent lack of class from Belgian officials, players and fans from around the world revelling in US misery.

A Croatian TV commentator stated: “Belgium won, but let’s wait, maybe tomorrow morning when we wake up, a call from the White House comes in.”

On Turkish TV it was the same: “US is out of the World Cup, unless there’s a last-minute change.”

At a time when so much joy has been sucked from the world, the demise of narcissism and a pin being pricked in American boorishness are truly worth celebrating. July 6 was a great day in the World Cup.

Business Day