It was an unexpectedly profitable time to be a paint retailer in the southwestern Russian city of Kazan. The region, famed as a hub for Tatar culture, saw the first mural pop up the summer before Russia hosted the FIFA World Cup™.
Covering the entire back wall of a ten-metre apartment building was a vibrant, rainbow-hued, depiction of Cristiano Ronaldo, his forehead slightly obscured by a fire escape and with a window resting on his left shoulder.
Naturally, in the weeks leading up to the World Cup, the building right across the street was taken over by a fresco of its own; this one a huge portrait of a bearded Lionel Messi that looked like it had been done by Roy Lichtenstein.
At some point before the tournament started and after the production of further Kazan friezes – those of Neymar and Luka Modric – the original Ronaldo mural was altered to include an inscription: I scored four goals. Can you beat that Leo?
The answer, at least in one category in that art-infused Russian summer, was no.
Some two thousand kilometres to the south, on the shores of the Black Sea, the Portuguese phenom went whoosh, bam, boom in grabbing a hat-trick in an exhilarating 3-3 draw with Iberian neighbours Spain.
That Group B opener is regarded as one of the finest chapters in the tournament’s storied history and its central character scripted a tale that Sochi evening that remains without sequel.
At 33 years and 130 days, the Madeira magician had become the oldest man to score a World Cup hat-trick. He didn’t just nudge the previous record holder, Dutch winger Rob Rensenbrink, aside; he rather bullied him off the metaphorical history ball by a full three years.
Four years earlier, the Fisht Stadium had played host to the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics and here an ice-cool Ronaldo started things with a well-placed penalty dispatch after a stepover-a-thon to earn the fourth minute opener.
His second, either side of a Diego Costa brace, came partly through high voltage power and partly through the unsure hands of David de Gea. With a Nacho thunderbolt then putting Spain 3-2 up just shy of the hour, the hopes of Portugal rescuing a point were fading.
That was until a Pique push on the Portuguese prince set up an 88th minute free-kick that Ronaldo sent over the Spanish wall and dipping like a precision missile as it flew into a stranded de Gea’s net.
It was the 51st hat-trick of an already phenomenal career, the 51st at World Cups and the moment where Ronaldo became the oldest player to grab three in a single match at the global finals.
