You're probably not that into sport. But once every four years, like most people, you grab a beer and a replica football jersey, and sit down to watch the World Cup. It's one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, with the final in 2014 pulling in over a billion people.
This year, you might have watched what some consider the game of the tournament so far: a 3-3 draw between Spain and Portugal. Amidst the fouls, free kicks and general frenzy that football brings, you might have noticed that all of Portugal's goals were scored by one man, wearing the number seven.
That man is Cristiano Ronaldo. For fans of football, he needs no introduction. For many ladies, he needs very little introduction; not only does he have the football skills of a Greek god, but he's got the body to match. Either way, if Cristiano Ronaldo invited you to have lunch, you'd probably jump at the opportunity.
However, one of his former teammates says that at all costs, you should politely turn down Ronaldo's offer.
French defender Patrice Evra played with Ronaldo for three years (from 2006-2009) at Manchester United, and speaking on ITV's 2018 World Cup podcast, he recounted a time that the 33-year-old Portuguese invited him to his house for lunch. Turns out, you do not want to go to lunch with Cristiano Ronaldo.
It all started off pretty innocuously. On the whole, despite being an athlete at the top of his game, Cristiano Ronaldo is known for having a pretty liberal diet in comparison to the likes of Tom Brady or LeBron, so when Evra was invited to Ronaldo's house for lunch, he was expecting a pretty big meal. He did not get that.
"[Ronaldo] said: 'Patrice, come over after training.' I went [and] you know I was really tired. At the table there was only salad and plain white chicken so I was like 'okay…,' and water, not any juice. We started eating and I was thinking some big meat would be coming after that but there was nothing."
Okay... that's fair. After all, they'd just finished training, and maybe there was an element of keeping himself in shape ahead of a big match. But then, things really got weird.
"He had just finished and he stood up and he started playing with a ball, doing some skills and he said: 'Let's do some two touch.' I was like 'can I just finish eating?' [Ronaldo replied] 'No, no let's play two-touch.' We start playing two touch. After that he said let's go to the pool to swim, I was like 'okay…' after going in the jacuzzi, the sauna, I'm done."
Yeah, it turns out that even after Manchester United training had ended, Cristiano Ronaldo carried on right afterward. Some say he never stops training. Football fans will obviously know that Ronaldo was always talented, but Evra's story shows just how far he's willing to push himself to reach the top of the game, and at 33, when most players' bodies begin to break down, Ronaldo seems to be moving from strength to strength.
Having been given the Ballon d'Or Award for the world's best footballer for the last two years, Ronaldo's aiming to win the award for the record-breaking sixth time this year, and one way to help his chances is to win the World Cup with Portugal. They're not one of the favourites, but with Ronaldo in his current form, anything's possible.
