Madrid – As Cristiano Ronaldo milked every last drop of his moment on the microphone at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday night, it was hard to imagine this was a player about to leave Real Madrid.

Real’s players were introduced one-by-one onto the podium and when Ronaldo’s moment came, a gap left after “Cristiano” for the delirious fans to fill, he predictably made the most of it.

A Portugal flag draped over his shoulders, Ronaldo pirouetted before counting out on his fingers to five, the number of Champions League titles he now owns.

He pulled out the badge on his shirt and kissed it, twice, before blowing a few more kisses to the crowd. By now they were chanting “Cristiano” and some of the Real players were joining in.

Even when Marcelo, the next one out, emerged, the grinning Ronaldo strutted back down the walkway to welcome him with the pair’s familiar celebratory dance.

This Ronaldo was almost unrecognisable from the one that had, less than 24 hours before, been prickly and restless, as he insisted he could leave Real, despite them just beating Liverpool to mark a third consecutive European triumph.

Even amid wrangling contract negotiations, a frosty relationship with president Florentino Perez, a perceived lack of support in his row with Spanish tax authorities and perhaps even jealousy over Real´s courting of Neymar, his timing was inexplicably bad.

Zinedine Zidane had summed up the mood. “I’m not thinking about that now,” he said.

Microphone in hand, however, Ronaldo was back at the centre of things on Sunday and this time his message was different.

“What can I say?” he said over the supporters’ cheers. “You have given us so much love in every single match. It’s an honour to play for the biggest club in the world, that’s the truth, it’s an honour.”

As the fans roared, Real’s players bounced around Ronaldo, chanting “Cristiano, quedate”, “Cristiano, stay”, and soon the whole stadium was singing too.

When Ronaldo resumed, the big screen briefly catching a stoney-faced Gareth Bale next to a beaming Casemiro, he said: “Thank you, this is very important to me. I am so happy with your passion, the passion of the players and coaches.

“What I like most is winning. So for one last time, one, two three – Hala Madrid!”

Earlier, in the Plaza de Cibeles, he had signed off a more modest speech with: “Thank you guys and see you next year.”

At euphoric events like these, there must always be a pull to draw the biggest cheer, but Ronaldo’s behaviour at least suggests Real could satisfy the 33-year-old if they want to.

He reportedly seeks a new deal in line with Lionel Messi’s at Barcelona and Neymar’s at PSG.

But Perez was not impressed by Ronaldo’s posturing on Saturday. “We hear the same every summer,” Perez said. “And then nothing happens.”

In 2012, Ronaldo said he was “sad” and last year, Portugese newspaper A Bola claimed the forward wanted to leave, unhappy with the club not backing him in the face of tax investigators.

Perez and Ronaldo need each other, but neither will want to be seen to have lost the argument. At the very least, Real’s celebrations showed nothing has been decided yet.

London – Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius is strong enough to deal with his Champions League final nightmare, according to team-mate Simon Mignolet.

Karius was responsible for two of Real’s goals in their 3-1 victory over Liverpool in Kiev on Saturday.

The 24-year-old German threw the ball into Real forward Karim Benzema and it bounced back into the net for the opening goal.

He then allowed Gareth Bale’s harmless shot to squirm through his hands for Real’s third goal in the closing minutes.

Karius was in tears after the final whistle and has been subjected to death threats and vile abuse on social media since the match.

Mignolet has made his share of mistakes during his Liverpool career and lost his place to Karius earlier this season.

But he empathises with the 24-year-old German’s plight and has offered to help.

The Belgian international believes Karius is mentally equipped to cope and expects him to be fine when Liverpool return to action next season.

“I know how it is. You need a bit of time. The good thing about this final is that he will have the summer to take it and go forward,” Mignolet said.

“If he wants to talk then of course I will be there. Every goalkeeper can relate to him.

“I’ve been in this situation before myself and those kind of things you deal with yourself.

“The only thing I told him is that there is a reason we got to this final, and why we played in this final, so think about that.

“But of course it is very difficult to say anything to him and to let him grasp it.

“He’s only young. I’m sure he will bounce back. I think we have all the tools at Liverpool as well to help him with that.”

Find the positives

Meanwhile, Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren is certain Jurgen Klopp’s side will make amends for their European heartache next term.

Lovren knows Liverpool’s run to the final was unexpected, but he says it underlined their emerging quality under Klopp.

“I promise that next year we will come back even stronger because I feel this team is growing every day.

“We beat the best teams in Europe. We beat Man City, who had a fantastic season in the Premier League.

“We showed again that Real Madrid respected us in some moments – they were defending quite deep.

“We need to find the positives. The manager is always positive. At the end, we will grow and I believe in this team that we can do it again next year.”

Until Liverpool’s star forward Mohamed Salah went off with a shoulder injury, Real were struggling to cope with the Reds’ incisive attacks.

And Lovren acknowledged the loss of their talisman — who scored 44 goals this season — was a hammer blow.

“It was also a big point when Mo was injured, it was a big change for us,” he said.

“Mo is one of the most important players for us and it’s not the same when you don’t have him on the pitch.

“The mindset is totally different when you have him on the pitch.

“It was difficult to accept that we, again, had such an unlucky moment with so many injuries.”