ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Julio Cortez is a veteran photojournalist with The Associated Press. He is the AP regional chief photographer and a Pulitzer Prize winner. Cortez is working his third World Cup, has been with the AP 16 years and is based in Dallas.
A day before Monday's Portugal-Spain match Cristiano Ronaldo answered questions at news conference about the possibility of this being the last time he competes in the World Cup. When he was asked
about what he might be feeling should his team lose to Spain he said that the outcome would be up to God and, regardless of the result, he would be thankful for everything he’s done on the tournament’s stage. This photo captures his emotions when the possibility of the end became a reality.
As the final minutes ticked off the clock in the injury time, I almost forgot about all other action on the field and followed Ronaldo's every move. I kept my lens on him and watched him react to near-misses in the last seconds. Then, as the referee blew the final whistle, I followed him with my lens as he shook hands, hugged teammates and members of the Spanish squad. As he walked closer to my end of the pitch, he started to show the emotion of his last time on the World Cup pitch.
The image I intended to make when I started my day was that of Ronaldo doing his famous “SIU” pose near my corner position after scoring a goal. If I wasn’t going to make that image, the other one would be of Ronaldo caught in his feelings at the end of his World Cup era. A very evenly matched game, a loss in the round of 16 and the end of a sixth trip to the World Cup crystalized the magnitude of the moment for him. Ronaldo looked up at the stands while holding in tears as he talked to teammates and opponents. The huge video screen at the stadium displayed Ronaldo walking on the pitch and the crowd began to roar in appreciation, which made him cry. That is exactly what I was expecting to happen as I came into this game knowing that if Portugal was eliminated, every camera lens and every eyeball in the stadium would be fixated on one of the greatest soccer players making his final appearance. Ronaldo wiping away tears, engulfed in his feelings, with his teammates as a background shadow really makes this image and moment stand out.
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