It's getting harder to be a romantic about world soccer with each passing day.
The sport's competitive balance is further consolidating into a handful of ultra-clubs, bankrolled by the kind of petrostates, new money oligarchs and avaricious Americans that make you shudder once ankle-deep looking in their means.
Now you have Cristiano Ronaldo, whose return to Manchester United, where he won the Premier League three times and the Champions League once and blossomed into at worst a top-five player of all time, should be as triumphant as homecomings get.