Cristiano Ronaldo ridiculously high standards have seen him remain at the top of professional football for over 15 years.
He has won everything there is to win at the club level, led Portugal to victory at Euro 2016 and also received a host of individual awards along the way. He has just added another to his collection: he was named “player of the century” at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai.
It doesn’t count the last 100 years, just the last 20, for that matter. So a fifth of a century, or 20% of a century. Not a whole century, because we are in the 2000s. But still, a century.
It was open to public voting, with Mohamed Salah getting the third-highest share and Barcelona legend Xavi (who was pretty good this century if we’re actually calling the last 20 years of a century) getting precisely 0%.
The big names nevertheless showed up for the sumptuous ceremony, Robert Lewandowski having awarded the “Player of the year” and appearances like Gerard Pique, Iker Casillas and Gianni Infantino.
Ronaldo really drew attention in his acceptance speech, however, when asked about his aspirations for his son (also known as Cristiano, but you already knew that) and what he would like to see him accomplish in growing.
“We’ll see if my son will become a great footballer,” he said, via Football Italia. “Sometimes he drinks coke and eats crisps and that irritates me. He knows it. “
Good parenting, to be fair. Junk food and sugars are not good for anyone. But he didn’t stop there.
“Sometimes I tell my son to take a dip in the cold water to recover from a run on the treadmill and he says, ‘Daddy, it’s so cold in there.’
“It’s good, he’s only 10 years old. I always tell him that it takes work and dedication to be successful.
“I will not pressure him to become a footballer, but I would like to”, he added. “The most important thing is to become the best in your field, be it football or medicine. I always tell him that it takes work and dedication to be successful. “
So it’s football, so follow in daddy’s footsteps, or drug. Two career paths simple enough for a ten-year-old to succeed …
Cristiano Jr. has a good chance of succeeding on his own, with one of the game’s greats guiding him through his life. He also started football very well, joining Juventus’ youth squad in 2018 and inheriting his father’s talent for scoring goals fairly quickly.
Maybe one day Cristiano Jr. will also win a Golden Foot Award, which his father won the other day. His literally a model of Ronaldo’s real foot, but in solid gold.
What an act to follow, kid!
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