After netting yet another goal for Al Nassr, Cristiano Ronaldo has revealed a heartfelt reason why his goal on Monday meant more to him. Here's a look!
The story
On Monday night, Al Nassr played their second match of the 2024/25 AFC Champions League, with the side claiming a 2-1 home win over Qatari side Al-Rayyan SC.
African superstar Sadio Mane scored Al Nassr's first goal in first-half stoppage time and Ronaldo would later add the second in the 76th minute.
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It was a landmark goal for the Portuguese striker, as it meant that Ronaldo has now scored more goals since turning 30 than he did in his 20s, according to talkSPORT.
It is said that the five-time Ballon dÓr winner has scored an incredible 441 goals since his 30th birthday. In contrast, he only had scored 440 goals when he turned 30 on 5 February 2015.
While scoring goals in routine to the former Real Madrid star, Monday's goal will particularly stand out in his memory.
Ronaldo revealed that 30 September would have been his late father's birthday.
?????? Cristiano Ronaldo: "Today's goal has a different flavor… I wish my father was alive because today is his birthday". pic.twitter.com/uPlmIMXIMg
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 30, 2024
His father, José Dinis Aveiro, is said to have died of alcohol-related liver failure at the age of 52 in back in September 2005, according to ESPN.
His death came just two years after Ronaldo signed for Manchester United from Sporting CP as a teenager.
Then-Portugal boss Luis Felipe Scolari has previously revealed how difficult it was to break the news of Aveiro's passing to Ronaldo, as it had come ahead of an international break.
Scolari told the Daily Mail: "It was very hard. It was the moment that created a bond between us, a bond that surpasses the coach-athlete relationship.
"When the news got to us, before a game against Russia, nobody knew how to tell him and nobody wanted to. So I told them I would do it as I knew how it was to lose a parent. I had lost mine a few years before.
"It was very sad, but it's the kind of moment that connects us as friends. The next day, Cristiano played a marvelous game and returned to Portugal. He asked to play. He said: 'I can't do anything for my father today, so I'll play tomorrow and then I'll go.'"
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