There were two pictures doing the rounds after the Champions League final that summed up Gareth Bale's fortunes perfectly.
The first depicted him sat glumly on the bench, a stark contrast to the second: the Welshman sliding onto the turf in ecstasy after scoring arguably the goal of the whole tournament.
Real Madrid undoubtedly owe their 13th European title to the former Tottenham star, who was brought on for Isco in an inspired substitution by Zinedine Zidane.
It seemed a little strange that he immediately plunged his future into doubt in his post-match interview, when he admitted he will sit down with his agent this summer as he seeks to play more regular football.
Then again, he wasn't the only one. Many Los Blancos fans will have been surprised that Mr. Champions League himself, Cristiano Ronaldo, didn't get on the scoresheet, with Karim Benzema netting on the back of a Loris Karius howler prior to Bale's brace.
European nights are usually all about CR7 and he somehow managed to keep that trend going despite not being the star man.
The Portuguese, who as of last night has five Champions League medals in his cabinet, caused a huge stir by saying the following to Bein Sports, per the BBC:
"In the next few days I'll give an answer to the fans."
"It was beautiful to be at Real Madrid. The future of any Madrid player is not important; we have just made history."
Why is he speaking in the past tense? It sounds very much like he wants to leave, although he threatened exactly the same thing last summer and a move never materialised.
However, as reported by the Mirror, he has now apologised for stealing his team-mates' thunder when all the focus should have been on a third successive title for Zizou's men.
"Maybe it wasn’t the perfect timing to talk about personal things. Maybe I’ve made a mistake or not," he said.
"It takes away from a beautiful, historic moment for us that is winning three Champions Leagues in a row, obviously it is a special moment."
"I’ll talk in a week when I am with the national team because I don’t want to take this top moment away from Real Madrid."
Perhaps that apology has been prompted by Florentino Perez, who angrily repsonded to the 33-year-old's comments with a reminder that he "has a contract".
Regardless, we're now likely to be in for months of speculation.