Off to the desert

There are interesting sayings for many things. If you are no longer wanted, no matter in which area, you will be “kicked out”. Or you will be “kicked off”. Not nice either. You can also “put your chair in front of the door”.

The result is the same in all cases. It brings with it serious changes. A reorientation is necessary, an inventory perhaps of your life so far and so much more. Nothing is the same anymore when such news is brought to you. Afterwards there is whispering: The colleague was “sent into the desert.” That says a lot about the situation, because it also means that it is now threatening the existence of those affected, because the desert is what it is something like a dead zone. Constantly changing dunes, sand holes that can just swallow you up. Snakes that are hard to see and no water in sight. The desert is the end, that's how we spoiled Central Europeans see it, because it's beyond our imagination to still believe in the chances of survival in the middle of a horizonless sandy landscape.

With Messner in the Gobi Desert The adventurer Lawrence of Arabia showed us that it is very possible to cross the desert successfully. The monumental historical film from 1962, which won seven Oscars, is based on the autobiographical war report by Thomas Edward Lawrence: “The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.” The British officer crossed the barely passable Nefud desert with around 50 men to get to the back of the port city of Aqaba, which is protected from the sea. Whether he really rode through the middle of the desert or stayed on the edge I leave to the historians. He definitely reached Aqaba. Deserts, like high mountains, always have a great attraction for adventurers. The South Tyrolean Reinhold Messner also couldn't escape their fascination and crossed the Gobi Desert in Central Asia alone in 2005 as a 60-year-old. It was a final border crossing between life and death.

Sport as a driving force for recognition The visit to the desert is not quite as dramatic for Cristiano Ronaldo. Like Reinhold Messner, he is not dependent on the help of friendly nomads to survive. Ronaldo is supported by the highest authorities in Saudi Arabia to bring the desert state further up the sporting ladder. Demanding recognition, the ruling monarchs of Saudi Arabia have chosen sport as a promising engine for success. And football, along with falconry and camel racing, is the number one national sport in Saudi Arabia. And let's remember: the Saudi selection defeated eventual world champions Argentina in the preliminary round in Qatar. CR7 in Saudi Arabia. © APA/afp / -

It's pointless and somehow becoming debilitatingly boring to point out that the five-time world footballer didn't sign with Al-Nassr FC because he liked playing in the sandbox as a child on his island (Madeira). It's the petro-dollars that got him and all the statements that suggest that he is looking for a new adventure or that he is even done with Europe are simply the usual nonsense to basically distract from a crushing defeat at the end of his sporting career. In the Portuguese national team he recently sat on the bench and at Manchester United he was suspended from duty last October. Dismissed. Sent into the desert. Now he has actually arrived there and his beginning with his new employer reminds me of the one with which Naples welcomed Diego Maradona to his new place of work in 1984. The Messiah has appeared. However, the Argentine was 24 years old at the time, while Ronaldo is fast approaching 40. The Portuguese follows a long-known pattern. Either older players who no longer receive a contract in their current environment go to the USA to make a few nice passes as highly paid stand-up players, usually in midfield, or, now very recently, to Qatar or Saudi Arabia. You follow the money trail again.

Distraction with sporting events The deal is definitely worth it for Ronaldo and the Saudis are happy too. You want more. The World Cup at some point. The Olympic Games in winter are also an issue. In the southwest, in the Asir Mountains, there is the “Jabal Ferwa” at over 3000 meters. In modern German, the initiatives to get recognition through sport are called “sportswashing”. Formula 1 races, a new golf series that was set up to compete with the PGA in the USA with immorally high prize money and the hosting of the 2029 Asian Winter Games are among them. The coup with Ronaldo is probably the most media-effective to date and is of course intended to distract from the ongoing massive human rights violations, from an autocratic system in which women have hardly any rights and people critical of the regime are still tortured and killed. Perhaps it is also fortunate for the people in the Gulf states that the increased attention means that the problems are being addressed more often. In any case, you can no longer hide in the desert like before. And hopefully we won't allow sand to be thrown in our eyes as easily as we did recently in Qatar.

About the author: Sigi Heinrich

The award-winning sports journalist (including the German Television Prize and the Bavarian Sports Prize), book author and TV commentator, dedicates his column “Sigi's Peaks” to the entire diversity of sport and sometimes poaches in other areas. Sometimes with a smile and a wink, sometimes serious and now and then deliberately provocative. There should be something for everyone.

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