I don’t exactly remember the first time I heard the name Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Actually, that’s not completely true. I remember the year. I remember the feeling. And I remember being six years old, sitting around football conversations that were already happening long before I understood them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My father and grandfather were massive Manchester United fans. They followed the club closely, and naturally, they were also following this young, gifted player who was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. Cristiano Ronaldo was still very young then. To me, he was just that player<\/em> everyone around me seemed to be talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn’t even pronounce his name properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But somehow, somehow, I saw him play and instantly fell in love with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t think six-year-old me understood football well enough to explain why. I certainly didn’t understand tactics, mentality, records, pressure, criticism or any of the things I associate with him today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just liked watching him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then I kept watching him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Twenty years have passed since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s the strange part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At some point, without me realising it, Cristiano Ronaldo stopped being just a footballer I liked watching. He became one of those rare people whose journey somehow became connected to my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I watched him grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But not just him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have also grown up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The six-year-old who first watched him in 2006 is obviously not the same person writing this today. I’ve changed. I’ve made mistakes. I’ve had good days and terrible ones. I’ve had dreams that changed, things that didn’t work out, and moments where I wondered whether I was actually becoming the person I wanted to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The truth is, I’m not who I wanted to be yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And I’m definitely not where I want to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I still hope I’ll get there someday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hope I can reach the place I’ve always dreamed of reaching. Not at Cristiano Ronaldo’s level, obviously. That’s impossible. The man has spent his entire life doing something extraordinary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But if I could achieve even 1% of what he has achieved, I think I’d be a happy man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that sounds ridiculous when you put it into numbers. But that’s not really what I mean. I don’t mean 1% of his goals or trophies. I mean 1% of his discipline, his mentality, the willingness to keep going when things don’t go your way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I could carry even a tiny part of that into my own life and use it to become the person I’ve always wanted to be, I’d consider myself lucky. Because that’s the part of Cristiano Ronaldo that has stayed with me far more than the football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I watched him leave Manchester United, go to Real Madrid, become something even bigger than the player I first saw as a child, and then move through different chapters of his career. I watched the goals, the celebrations, the trophies, the disappointments, the criticism and all the moments in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And somehow, I was always there. Not physically, obviously. He has no idea I exist. But I was there in the only way a fan can be, watching, supporting, defending him, feeling proud when things went right and genuinely hurting when they didn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were moments when it felt like the entire football world had something to say about him. The media had their narratives. FIFA had its controversies. There were people who openly disliked him, people who wanted him to fail, and plenty of situations where I felt that what happened to him went far beyond football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t pretend to know every reason behind everything that has happened to him. But I know what it felt like to watch someone I had admired since childhood constantly have to prove himself again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that’s one of the reasons I stayed. Cristiano Ronaldo never really gave me the impression that he was willing to accept that he had reached his limit. That mentality stayed with me far more than any goal ever could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’m not a footballer. I’ve never lived anything close to the life he has lived. I don’t know what it feels like to walk into a stadium with millions of people waiting for you to succeed or fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I know what it feels like to have something against you and still keep going. I know what it feels like to be doubted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And maybe that’s why I chose him. Not because he was always perfect, or because every decision he made was right, or because supporting him meant agreeing with everything he ever did. I chose him because he kept getting back up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s the part of Cristiano Ronaldo that I think six-year-old me somehow understood before I had the words for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And now I’m 20 years further into that journey, and something about 2026 feels different. It feels like we’re reaching the end of a chapter that has lasted almost my entire conscious life. It seems like 2026 could probably be his last year as a footballer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And honestly, something about that just doesn’t feel right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve spent years knowing there would be another match. Another goal, another ridiculous finish, another Siuuuuu, another morning where I’d open my phone and look for the latest Ronaldo news without even thinking about it, another argument with someone convinced their favourite player is better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was always another match to look forward to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now every match can feel like it might be the last. Every goal, every Siu. And I’m not ready for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe that’s because Cristiano Ronaldo has been present through so many versions of me. The six-year-old who didn’t know how to pronounce his name. The kid who watched him without understanding why he was different. The teenager who started understanding the game a little more. And the person I am now, looking back and realising this footballer has been around for most part of my life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That’s a strange thing to comprehend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some people enter your life deliberately. Others just become part of it. Cristiano Ronaldo became part of mine without me realising it. And somewhere along the way, while I was watching him become who he became, I was becoming someone too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe I haven’t become the person I wanted to become yet. Maybe I’m nowhere near where I want to be. But I haven’t given up on getting there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And perhaps that’s another thing I owe, in some small way, to the person I’ve watched for twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don’t know what I’ll do when he finally walks away from football. I’ll still watch. I’ll still support my teams. Life goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But there will be an empty space where there used to be certainty, the certainty that Ronaldo would be playing somewhere, that there would be another comeback, another goal, another reason to argue he’s the greatest to ever do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For twenty years, I’ve followed him. And I still do and I always will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He doesn’t know my name. He doesn’t know that some kid in 2006 saw him play and decided, without really understanding why, that this was his footballer. He doesn’t know that I’ve been there through every success and every heartbreak, or that I’ll keep defending him even when there’s no reason for him to know or care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that’s okay. Being a fan was never really about being noticed. Sometimes you simply choose someone to believe in. For me, that person was Cristiano Ronaldo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And after twenty years, I still won’t change my mind. Because for me, he will always be the true GOAT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t exactly remember the first time I heard the name Cristiano Ronaldo. Actually, that’s not completely true. I remember the year. I remember the feeling. And I remember being six years old, sitting around football conversations that were already happening long before I understood them. It was 2006. My father and grandfather were massive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"I Think Cristiano Ronaldo Became Part of My Life Without Me Realising It","description":"I don't exactly remember the first time I heard the name Cristiano Ronaldo. Actually, that's not completely true. I remember the year. I remember the feeling. 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