THE term “diva” has been used more than once to describe Cristiano Ronaldo’s behaviour, often to the annoyance of his fans. But it is difficult to see him any other way given the events of the past 72 hours.

Ronaldo and his handlers let it be known on Friday that he had had enough of Spain and Real Madrid. And that his decision was “irrevocable”. Make no mistake about it, the Cristiano media machine was ready, with folks in various countries deputised to explain his side of the story.

They told a tale of a player who was at the end of his rope. One who felt victimised by the Spanish fiscal authorities, who have been investigating him for years and who are deciding whether or not he evaded some £13 million in taxes. One who felt he was being unfairly targeted by Spanish media; not the sporting press as much as the news media, who seemed all too ready to report every leak or detail relating to his case. One who has become convinced that Real Madrid – that most powerful of Iberian institutions – weren’t doing enough to protect him and insulate him.

The knee-jerk reading of the situation is quite simple. Lionel Messi, the yin to his yang, was sentenced to 21 months in prison after being found guilty of evading around £4m in taxes. Messi is a first-time offender who has committed a non-violent crime and in those circumstances Spanish courts generally suspend any sentence less than two years. That is why he is not going behind bars.

But Ronaldo’s case is potentially more serious. The sums in question are three times as large. What is more, two years ago, in a separate tax investigation, he reached a settlement of around £4.5m in exchange for

making full disclosures of his fiscal affairs. Now, allegedly, those disclosures might not be quite as full as they were meant to be. And that further aggravates his situation. So the risk of some kind of custodial sentence isn’t entirely far-fetched. Particularly when the Spanish exchequer, after years of being somewhat laissez faire, is aggressively going after celebrities who dodge taxes. And so Ronaldo wants to leave the country.

The problem with that reasoning is that it is not as if leaving the country makes all his tax woes disappear. He has assets that can be frozen or seized and becoming a fugitive from the Spanish tax man is a great career move.

Rather, leaving is about sending a message to Spain: “You’re persecuting me and so I’m out the door and you’ll be sorry when I’m gone!”

Classic diva stuff in other words.

Which doesn’t mean he’s entirely wrong either. Ronaldo – and Messi, who, lest we forget, becomes a free agent in a year’s time and has yet to extend his contract – has contributed enormous sums to the Spanish economy and not just the football one. And his reward for this is being treated like a criminal.

It is not as if he does his own taxes or he is the architect of elaborate off-shore tax avoidance schemes. He earns enormous sums of money and pays tax lawyers and accountants to look after his affairs. If they get it wrong and do something which might be illegal, it is his responsibility (and that means paying what is owed, plus interest, plus even a fine) but it’s not – as he sees it – his fault. Or, at least, it doesn’t make him a thief who deserves to be locked up.

That is the line he and his advisers are pushing. And they hope it will generate enough sympathy for the political climate to change, ideally to the point that the tax authorities at the very least act with more discretion, recovering the sums owed but without turning it into a media spectacle.

There is also a bit of a conspiracy theory doing the rounds. It holds that Madrid president Florentino Perez wouldn’t mind shifting Ronaldo this summer. While he was brilliant at the end of the season and is a favourite for the Ballon d’Or, he showed signs of wear and tear in the last campaign and turns 33 in February. He has a contract through to 2021 and the club are on the hook for some £160m in wages in those four years. This could be the perfect time to sell. You get some money back and you save

yourself a fortune before the inevitable decline.

Perez can’t put him up for sale, of course – there would be a popular uprising if he did – but if he can make it appear that it’s Ronaldo who wants to leave, it’s a different matter.

Conjecture? Sure. But far from implausible.

That is why, while the hunch is that he will stay put, it is by no means certain. But where can he go?

Neither China nor Major League Soccer would appear to satisfy his craving for attention. You can count on one hand the clubs who can afford his wages, even theoretically. A reunion with Jose Mourinho at Manchester United might please Ed Woodward, but it seems far-fetched given his fractious relationship with the Special One. Financially, he would be a stretch for Paris St Germain. Manchester City nor Chelsea appear good fits either.

Stay tuned. This one will run all summer long.

THE Confederations Cup is underway in Russia and, relative to Brazil and South Africa, things feel a bit more muted. Part of it is that the continental success of Portugal and Chile means there are two fewer A-list heavyweights out there and part of it is that Germany have left a number of veterans out, hoping instead to blood the next generation.

Beyond the football, the focus is on Russia itself and how it will handle the dress rehearsal for 2018. Early indications, based on 24 hours in Moscow, are that you can’t tell there’s a major tournament going on. Everything feels subdued.

You almost wonder if the country, hugely aware of the negative attention it has received, is intentionally trying to keep a low profile, focusing instead on making sure that everything happens as it should, without incident. From hooliganism to racism to corruption to North Korean de facto slave labour used to build the Zenit Arena in St Petersburg, the less the spotlight shines on Russia right now, the better it is.