#4 Do you play for your father?
For anyone to have lost their father when not long out of their teens is bound to affect them in almost every possible way. Ronaldo had not long been at Manchester United before his dad, Jose, succumbed to his long-standing alcohol problem.
Always a player who wanted to do it all, and one who would notoriously be labelled a ‘cry baby’ if things didn’t go his way, it wouldn’t be hard to reconcile Ronaldo’s incessant drive and ambition with a need to continuously prove his worth to a man that was never really there for him in his formative years.
It’s abundantly clear how close the player remains to his mum in particular, and also to the rest of his family, but with no father figure to look up to or to guide him, is this his way of saying ‘look at me, I did it’ to the old man?
Though he is the youngest of four children, he is far and away the most successful and arguably has taken on the role that his own father couldn’t provide – that of breadwinner and man of the house.
