New Delhi June 24: A 10-year-old boy in a blazing tracksuit chose the perfect moment to evade the eyes of imposing bouncers and sneak onto the turf to meet his hero, Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese legend, in a gracious mood, smiled warmly for a selfie with the fan, later identified as Berat and let off with a warning and not a fine. The footballer whispered something in his ears, before the guards began to chase him. Ronaldo’s eyes followed his admirer, an amused smile dangling on his lips, before he was finally caught and dragged away.
At that moment, Ronaldo suddenly endeared himself a lot more to the crowd, or perhaps the world. Beneath the veneer of hard-edged competitiveness, of soap-operatic preening and whining, a consummate athlete who loved the role of playing the pantomime villain equally, whose hubris of profuse gravity, managers loathed and loved in equal measure, was a soft and kind man. Maybe, it took a child to bring out the child in him.
