Cristiano Ronaldo Jr’s destiny was determined by 3 words. The fairytale starts like this: His soccer star dad stumbles upon an LA waitress, and makes his intentions clear right to her face. He even goes on to draw a heart on the window and writes “me, you, kiss”. (Hope this won’t become a catchphrase!) A one night stand, and zap! A new starkid is born.
Here’s a story which no child would want to hear once he grows up. But one good thing is that there wasn’t any disclaimer by Ronaldo – to the contrary, in fact. For once, he showed great maturity by owning up to his act and behaving responsibly. He wasted no time in flying down to NY once the baby was born and after confirming that the baby was indeed his, Ronnie paid the waitress a huge chunk of money to keep her identity a secret and provide him sole custody of their child.
Boris Becker and his love child Anna
But what was funny was when he equated himself with Boris Becker, another star whose brief sexual encounter with a woman named Angela resulted in a lovechild. Becker was on a denial spree but had to admit his paternity finally after the DNA test proved beyond doubt that the child was his. If you look at the picture, you can see that Anna has a striking resemblance to her father. Becker, who already has 2 sons with ex-wife Barbara, later obtained joint custody of Anna to secure her future.
Ronaldo seemed all excited (???) about it from the very beginning. His Facebook status read:
It is with great joy and emotion that I inform I have recently become father to a baby boy. As agreed with the baby’s mother, who prefers to have her identity kept confidential, my son will be under my exclusive guardianship. No further information will be provided on this subject and I request everyone to fully respect my right to privacy (and that of the child) at least on issues as personal as these are.
It was a friend of mine who pinged me this message and asked me to take a wild guess who the guy could be. The first name that flashed in my head was that of Maradona, who already has a child out-of-wedlock – Diego Sinagra. Maradona’s first meeting with his lovechild was weird, not sentimental as in the movies. Maradona Jr managed to slip into a golf course after learning about his dad’s arrival in Italy. The soccer star was taken aback when the boy whom he thought was an autograph hunter introduced himself as his son. It took many years for him to admit that Sinagra is his son. He once even described Sinagra as a ‘mistake’ which he later repented. He apologised to his son, and even promised to make his future financially secure. His son responded then saying:
Of course I’m happy, I’d given up hope. But it’s only something you’d expect from a person who has finally realised he made a mistake.
The burden of being termed a ‘mistake’ is a kind of pain and humiliation no child wants to go through. Eric Segal’s ‘Man Woman and Child’ talks about it through Jean Claude. It ends with a sentimental note by protagonist Robert as he bids adieu to his son. The child refuses to stay with his dad Robert’s family and instead returns to his mother’s country – France. Robert, with great agony, realizes that though his son will always love him, he doesn’t deserve to be regarded as Jean Claude’s father – because he won’t be there by Jean Claude’s side as he grows up.
Watch the video of the final scene of its movie version:
Sinagra says he doesn’t bear any ill-will towards his dad. Time might have healed all those wounds. I’m glad that Little Ronaldo won’t have to go through all that – if there’s one thing Ronaldo’s done right, it’s not terming his son a ‘mistake’; instead, proclaiming his paternity proudly to the world. In spite of his Casanova image, Ronaldo is to be appreciated for this.