Thanks, Internet: Watch Cristiano Ronaldo's Real Madrid presentation online for free

Thanks to the Internet, and a healthy disregard for copyright, you, too, can watch Cristiano Ronaldo’s presentation at Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu today. Here’s how.

It’s really not all that hard. If you’re on Windows, you might be able to get as.com‘s official stream to work, provided the site even has a stream this week. (AS uses some lame Windows Media codec, one that Flip4Mac refused to play last week during Kaká’s presentation. The Windows guys here, Doug and Matt, were able to see the video just fine.) But for everyone else, may I point you in this direction?

RojaDirecta, which is sort of an Internet clearing house of live sport, has the presentation listed for 3pm ET (12pm PT). Once that time rolls around, you go there, click the appropriate link, which isn’t live just yet, and away you go. You’ll get to see Mr. Ronaldo say, in a wonderful mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, things like, “I’m very happy to be here” and “Hala Madrid.” It’s truly compelling TV.

Something like 80,000 people are expected to cram into the stadium, so, yeah, it’s sort of a big deal today in the wide world of sports. And, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can be a part of it all! Hooray!

UPDATE It was just brought to my attention that you’ll also be able to watch the unveiling today on bwin.com. (Bwin is a gambling Web site that sponsors a bunch of teams, including Real Madrid.) I don’t know what kind of codec bwin is using to stream the video, but I imagine it’ll be in pretty high quality.

And while you’ll there, why not put a few euros down on who will score more goals next season, Messi or Ronaldo? (The answer is Ronaldo, as much as it pains me to say that.)

This is literally the biggest news you’ll find online today, vis-à-vis technology. Absolutely nothing is happening.