I did not watch this match. I am not a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo either, for no clear reason.
Yet, with this gesture, he has shown sport is not all about winning matches. It is also about winning hearts, in a spirit of camaraderie with sportsmanship scoring over match rivalries.
In sport, players seldom allow room for a slanging match, with no ridiculing of their counterparts. It is only in politics, particularly in India, where leaders demonstrate hate for rivals, spitting venom on one another.
The digression aside, Ronaldo leaves the World Cup a winner in the humanity stakes.
G Joslin Vethakumar