Until this season, everything about Cristiano Ronaldo screamed style over substance. From the borrowed name to the absurd, showboating stepovers more suited to line dancing than professional sport, he came across as an imitation great. Always ready to turn it on against West Ham or Newcastle, he has more often than not been reluctant to get stuck in when it really matters. His underwhelming record of just one goal in twenty games against Chelsea and Liverpool is something he will be desperate to improve on.

This season, Ronaldo has provided 41 reasons to believe things have changed. 41 goals in 47 appearances are indeed difficult to argue with. Nevertheless, when he walks onto the pitch in Moscow with his Manchester United team mates for the Champions League final on Wednesday night, the Portuguese star will still have something to prove. Despite this season's massive improvement in the delivery of end product to match his flamboyance, the suspicion still lingers that he is liable to fade away on the biggest stage of all.

Once again, United's opponents are Chelsea, the situation nothing less than do-or-die . This won't make things any easier for Ronaldo. Chelsea have shown time and time again that they appear to have the winger's number. For all his goals against weaker opposition, he has yet to score, or even to make a significant contribution, in a game against the Londoners.

Ronaldo isn't the first player to suffer from the reputation of being a big-game bottler. Frank Lampard, one of Ronaldo's probable opponents in Moscow, has attracted the same unfortunate tag after a series of lacklustre big-match displays, especially for England in the later stages of major tournaments. However, Lampard went a long way towards redeeming his reputation with the ice-cool penalty that helped to despatch Liverpool in Chelsea's semi-final. Although much of the schmaltz-laden media coverage of Lampard's traumatised state following the death of his mother just days before bordered on the sickening, you still had to admire the compusure with which he sent Pepe Reina the wrong way under the most intense pressure of his life. Ronaldo will be hoping for a similar chance at redemption in the final, especially after having blasted wide from the spot during Manchester United's own semi final first leg against Barcelona in the Nou Camp.

Most people have to achieve something substantial before they have a biography written about them. Even before this season's goal-fest, Ronaldo already had four listed on amazon.co.uk, and that was in addition to his own artfully fabricated 'Moments' photographic collection. He and his fans will be hoping that the next one includes something of real substance to underpin the myth: something to make the name Ronaldo his own rather than the one he borrowed from a Brazilian legend. The winning goal in a Champions League final would do nicely.