Real Madrid Fans Are The Most Fickle In The World

Real Madrid fans booed and whistled at superstar Cristiano Ronaldo against AS Roma

Imagine your club had a player, perhaps a winger or outright center forward, that has scored over 300 goals for your club. Imagine that this same player has helped your club win seven trophies, including a Champions League trophy. Finally, picture that player nearing the end of his prime but still being among one of the best players in the world.

Now ask yourself a question, “would I ever boo or whistle at this player while he still wore my club’s shirt?”.

If you are a Real Madrid supporter, then your answer may be yes while every other sane football fan around the world would say “of course not”. Most recently, Real Madrid fans booed Ronaldo after he spurned a few chances against AS Roma in the Champions League clash that Los Blancos ended up winning 4-0 on aggregate.

Roma had Real under pressure and could have easily scored two goals before halftime were it not for some awful finishing from forwards Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah. Still, Real and Ronaldo rolled on to the quarterfinals of the competition and are among the favorites to lift the trophy behind Bayern Munich and Barcelona.

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The real issue is that Madridistas are some of the most fickle fans in the world and their negativity creates a hostile atmosphere around the Bernabeu. They often give standing ovations to opposing great players such as Ronaldinho but rarely give their own players the same level of respect.

Instead the players are often the targets of derision from their fans when they do not perform at the level that they are expected to live up to. Stars are not immune from that criticism and are often even more susceptible to that sort of treatment from those fickle supporters.

Rather than appreciating the greatness of Ronaldo the way Barcelona fans do with Lionel Messi or Chelsea fans did with Frank Lampard, Real Madrid fans choose to whistle and boo when they feel he is not performing at his best. The Portuguese superstar has proven that he is immune to that sort of criticism anyway and uses it as a fuel to drive himself to greater heights.

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Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for fans to boo a player. Perhaps if they submitted a transfer request or said something negative about the manager or the fans but this is rarely the case at Madrid. It is often just a player not playing at their best or being out of form because they are low on confidence or recovering from injury.

The role of the fans should be more often than not to support their players, especially when they have given you such a great period of success. They have come up against one of the best Barcelona sides and one of the best teams of all time and have still brought several trophies to the Bernabeu. These players deserve better than booing and whistling from one of the most fickle fanbases in all sports.

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