Cristiano Ronaldo Sacrificed His Beautiful Face for a Goal

If you watch enough sports, there are a few phrases that you will invariably begin to hear all the time. "He's the first one in the building and the last one out." "He does all the little things." And maybe my least favorite of all the clichéd expressions we're inundated with over and over: "He took one for the team." Usually, this last expression is used any time someone takes a charge in basketball or gets hit by a pitch in baseball. But this weekend, Cristiano Ronaldo reminded us why that expression entered the lexicon in the first place.

Now, some would say that the match was already out of reach, with Ronaldo's Real Madrid dominating Deportivo to the tune of 5-1 already, and therefore Ronaldo couldn't really "take one for the team" as the team didn't need it. But this play, in the 84th minute? Not only was Ronaldo's goal absolutely stunning, but he sacrificed the most valuable thing in the world to get it: Cristiano Ronaldo's perfect face.

As you can see in that video, a defender's cleat made contact with Ronaldo's face and bloodied it up good. And anyone who is willing to sacrifice something so perfect for the good of the team has more than earned his title as the greatest soccer player in the world.