Ronaldo birthday party after Atletico defeat causes major hangover for Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo has been in the headlines again in Spain on Sunday and Monday, but in this case it is not his football which has seen sports writers put pen to paper to sing his praises, but rather an unfortunately timed birthday party which has attracted criticism from all corners.

Ronaldo cut and unhappy looking figure as Real Madrid were thrashed and humiliated 4-0 by neighbors Atletico Madrid on Saturday afternoon.

He had arguably one of his worst displays in a white shirt and never looked like making an impact in a game which ended with Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti saying his side were "second best in everything."

Bearing that in mind the last thing Real Madrid needed was for Sunday morning to greet the Spanish public with a series of photos from Ronaldo's 30th birthday party which was celebrated a matter of hours following defeat in the Vicente Calderon. Photos of Ronaldo singing alongside Colombian entertainer Kevin Rondan, along with eight of his teammates and even some members of the Real Madrid technical staff, such as assistant coach, Paul Clement, were most definitely not what Real Madrid fans wanted to see as they tried to digest a painful defeat.

In fairness, the party, which is rumored to have cost around 400,000 euros to organize, had been planned for months, people had travelled a long way to be there and it couldn't be canceled at a moment's notice. Nevertheless the sight of players signing, drinking, laughing and posing for photos as if nothing had happened has angered supporters, club president Florentino Perez and if the press is to believed, members of the squad who were not present.

Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes has tried to play down the controversy saying Ronaldo was "very angry about the defeat, but he wanted to respect the people who had come and it was also his niece's birthday."

Mendes was also angry that images of the party had reached the press, but in the days of smartphones, twitter and social media, he should know it is unrealistic to expect to be able to keep a lid on such a gathering under any circumstances and even less so in the circumstances in which it was held.

And so the damage has been done, Ronaldo's party the 'Party of Discord' was number one trending topic all day in Spain on Sunday, while Monday's papers also wonder how the club has moved from the "heaven" of a 22 game winning run to the "hell" of Saturday's humiliation in just one short month.

The hangover of that party (in every sense of the word) is going to take a while to get over. Endi