Nobody says he is a bad player either. Most people can comment on the number of his assist, but it doesn't mean he doesn't share the ball, some people are much better at executing it, so he did. You know it's football. I am a different asshole, thus I prefer the emotional-melodramatic Roberto Baggio, or (in current days of football) Lionel Messi.
But yeah like I said, the wink and the spit... he acted as if Portugal should have won because they had him in it. Well, if your opponent is a better one (or luckier), then the greatest player on the planet can't do anything can't they? George Weah was a Liberian. He was world best player back in 1995. But that couldn't bring Liberia to World Cup either. When you fail at something, then your ego exploded and show it off to the public, well, I don't have to explain it here.
Regarding EPL: back in 2006, it was all the hype, people around me were talking about Liverpool, MU, Arsenal, Chelsea, and all English clubs. Thierry Henry was the hot stuff back then. He met Italy at WC2006 Final, from the "scandalous", "dirty-playing", "corruption-laden" Italian Serie-A league (major match fixing case/Calciopoli Scandal, and Gianluca Pessotto's suicide attempt). They were the darkhorse, but me and my brother viewed it differently. As soon as the play starts, it was clear that Italy is an exact match for even for one of La Liga's best players (Zidane) and EPL's best goal scorer (Henry). Controversies aside, it says everything about Italian league quality (all Italian squad members came from Serie-A clubs). You don't just judge them by looking at Champions league results and how the local bookies managed to get to the officials.
Also, I was wrong about current Italian squad. I first thought they would be massacred by Spain and won't make it through the group matches. But they prevailed.