Cristiano Ronaldo is a flashy, shaven-chested ponsified footballer with a fondness for “showboating”. That last is one reason why, whatever you think of football, anybody with an ounce of human spirit should cherish him. To showboat is “to perform in an outrageous or spectacular manner”. In which case, and in all walks of life, God bless the showboater and all who sail with him in our spectacularly dull and inoffensive age.

Ronaldo has already scored 36 goals for Manchester United this season, remarkable for a striker never mind a winger. Alongside the praise, however, there is a constant whine about the theatrical side of his game. It is more than simple patriotic prejudice against the Portuguese “winker” who did for England in the World Cup. After he scored in United's win against Roma this week, Italian stars also lined up to kick at Ronaldo's “big head” and his “unnecessary” ball tricks that show a lack of “respect” for opponents.

Ronaldo may have a big head, used to bullet home that goal in Rome. But what is “unnecessary” about putting on a show, running rings around and embarrassing prosaic opponents? It has been part of the stylish champion's art since the Ali shuffle. And we need flair for flair's sake more than ever today, when even top foreign coaches such as the England manager will turn the “beautiful game” into a boring business.

Of course, depending on where you sit in football's tribal divide, fans either love or hate Ronaldo for his arrogant brilliance. But from where I sit at Old Trafford, the underlying antipathy to his style also shows up something about a wider aversion to the spectacular in our society beyond the touchline.

As United were beating Liverpool last month, grown men and women around me put their hands in the air and swayed in “tune” singing: “He plays on the left/He plays on the right/That boy Ronaldo/Makes England look s***e”. He does indeed - and not just our footballers. In our era of cultural conformism, where grey men rule the world, we celebrate the ordinary. People demand “respect” for who they are rather than what they do, and we are warned it is damaging to the self-esteem to suggest that anybody is less than “special”. Even the theatrical is now banal, as celebrity culture and reality TV shows spread the illusion that all can be real stars.

We are uncomfortable with outrageously displayed exceptionalism. Yet at United 50 years ago, Matt Busby told his Babes that their job was to entertain the hard-working folk of Manchester by showing them something that they could not do themselves. That is what the showboating Ronaldo - along with my favourite, the English battle cruiser Wayne Rooney - is doing today. And for that he must be damned as too clever for his own good, too big for his red boots.

As the song says, there's only one Ronaldo - but that is still one too many for some.

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