When Cristiano Ronaldo sat down with Piers Morgan in a tell-all exclusive last November, it seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for the Portuguese star’s illustrious, yet controversial football career.
Right after the interview, Manchester United said the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was to leave the English club by “mutual agreement”. The sacking was executed in typical English genteel fashion, yet Ronaldo hogged the headlines for months.
At 37, in the twilight of his career, no European club was interested in signing him. His critics laughed and rubbished him for being a self-centred, self-absorbed, entitled ‘baby’, who turned his back on the club that made him a household name.
But loyal fans, including Morgan, continued to cheer him on as they took pot-shots at almost everyone, including Lionel Messi, despite the Argentinian winning the recent World Cup – a silverware that has thus far, eluded Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, however, has supporters in the Middle East. Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr handed him a ridiculously handsome second lease on life.
While Ronaldo failed to score in the club’s first two games, Al-Nassr boss Rudi Garcia believes his new signing will eventually return to European football to end his career.
In Malaysia, a similar kind of drama erupted on Friday.
Umno gave Khairy Jamaluddin the boot. He was red-carded for his “tell-all” when campaigning in Sungai Buloh during Malaysia’s 15th General Election last November.
He was accused of saying that Umno had lost its way, and portrayed himself as the saviour of the party and the country.
While Khairy is no Ronaldo, he too, has been hogging the limelight.
In an interview with radio station BFM this morning, the former Umno Youth chief stressed that his expulsion was not done in the right manner, but would not be appealing the decision.
Khairy, who had helmed three ministries as an Umno faithful – Youth and Sports, Science, Technology and Innovation, and Health – admitted he was considering several offers and remained bullish about leading the country, one day. He is scheduled to share more on Astro Awani tomorrow night.
Party veteran Tan Sri Noh Omar was also sacked, while Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Umno deputy Youth chief Shahril Hamdan, were suspended for six years. However, Khairy has been dominating the conversations.
His critics say good riddance, as they took issue with Khairy being a part of the “Fourth-floor boys” – Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s set of advisors – who allegedly ran the country on behalf of the former prime minister. Abdullah is Khairy’s father-in-law.
They were quick to remind many of Khairy’s past mis-steps, including when he and fellow Manchester United fan Datuk Seri Najib Razak donned the Malaysian jersey in a video campaign shot at a mamak restaurant to discuss GE14 in 2018.
But Khairy then trained his guns on Najib when the latter was responsible for Barisan Nasional’s rout of Putrajaya in the 2018 national polls.
However, as Khairy said this morning, his father-in-law and Najib stepped down following the heavy defeats. Not so Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, despite leading Umno to the party’s worst-ever performance (winning only 26 parliamentary seats).
Ahmad Zahid continues his hold on Umno’s presidency after the motion to bar the contest of the top two posts in the party elections to be held before May, was passed in the recent Umno General Assembly.
Ahmad Zahid has been ruthless in his purge of those who are not aligned with him. He will do whatever it takes to stay in power, including waging war against those who continue to tarnish his image and that of Umno’s.
Umno, just like Manchester United, is harping on past glory.
Having last won the Premier League title a decade ago, the English club, however, may be able to find its footing this year or perhaps next season.
The same cannot be said of Umno – whose internal bickering is set to worsen and may even result in the disintegration of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s fragile unity government.
Khairy’s future remains uncertain. Will he go to another party or be an independent in the upcoming state elections just to prove a point? Which other party would want to make way for a strong personality such as Khairy’s? This is, after all, a man who has high political ambitions.
We have seen former Umno leaders who were sacked, returning with a bang. They include Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Anwar and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
For now, Khairy, the former Rembau MP, is enjoying the limelight. This round of media frenzy could very well further increase his popularity.
He has unfulfilled dreams, and Khairy may eventually manoeuvre his way back into Umno’s fold. Despite some claiming that Khairy doesn’t really enjoy much support from Umno’s grassroots, creating alliances to “fight” Ahmad Zahid seems the most realistic and logical thing for him to do, at present.
Najib, who was eventually jailed on corruption charges, succeeded in rebranding himself, and somehow won the hearts of the grassroots via his ‘Bossku’ catchphrase, despite the embarrassing 2018 GE outing. Khairy could follow suit as he has done before – evident in the ‘Kita Juara’ slogan during the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games when he was Youth and Sports minister, and the ‘Kita Jaga Sungai Buloh’ rallying cry, during his GE15 campaign.
Khairy could also rely on sports, like what most politicians tend to do, to further advance his goals.
Over the weekend, he was offered the role of Johor Darul Ta’zim’s chief executive officer. Khairy is no stranger to the local football scene, following his involvement in the MyTeam football reality show that went on to do the unprecedented – by convincing the FA of Malaysia to field a side against a team of ‘misfits’ in 2006. The MyTeam squad was close to humiliating the national body before losing 2-1.
There is one major difference between Ronaldo and Khairy, who turned 47 on Jan 10.
Unlike Ronaldo, whose clock is ticking, Khairy has all the time in the world to pursue his ultimate goal – of occupying the top job in Putrajaya.
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