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Cristiano Ronaldo has almost completed football, but there is a hole in his heart no trophy will ever fill.
For as he closes in, blisteringly, on his target of 1,000 career goals, a solemn detail remains. His father only lived to see 27 of them.
Ronaldo's life has been moulded by his old man who never saw his son fully blossom.
It was his dad, Jose Dinis Aveiro, who brought him along to Andorinha, the local club where he was the equipment manager. They became Ronaldo's first team, even then Jose suspected he would go on to great things.
Ever since his death aged 52 in 2005, Ronaldo has held his dad's memory dear. In September he dedicated a goal to him just a few days before what would have been his 72nd birthday.
And he still speaks about Jose with a deep pain. Ronaldo has admitted that he 'didn't know his father 100 per cent' because of the former soldier's alcoholism. 'I never spoke with him, like a normal conversation. It was hard,' he told Piers Morgan in 2019, in an interview which saw him break down in tears.
Cristiano Ronaldo admits to never really knowing his father (right), but he has shaped his life
Jose Dinis Aveiro was an alcoholic and died of liver failure at the age of 52 in 2005, missing his best career moments - but he introduced him to football in the first place
Six years on and Ronaldo is again speaking to Morgan, again mentioning his father. This time, it's in the context of Diogo Jota.
After Jota's tragic death in July, Ronaldo received some criticism for not attending his funeral. Why wouldn't he turn out and show his respects for his late Portugal team-mate, onlookers wondered? Why did pictures soon emerge of him lounging, bare-chested, on a yacht in Mallorca?
Well, it turns out his father's death established a personal more tradition he cannot bring himself to break.
'One of the things that I don't do, it's after my father died, I've never been in a cemetery again,' he explained to Morgan.
'And second, you know my reputation, wherever I go is a circus. I don't go also because if I go, the attention goes for me and I don't want this kind of attention.'
Ronaldo seems sincere on this. His sister Katia Aveiro has previously related how, after their father's death in 2005, graves were damaged as the media and public followed their every move - even when they were in the cemetery.
'When my father died in 2005, not only because of the sadness of loss, but also because of the cameras and curious people pouring in from the cemetery and everywhere we went,' she wrote on Instagram over the summer.
'It was an indescribable tragedy. Graves were damaged, and people rudely walked up and down the wall. In the chaos, we could not leave with dignity.
Ronaldo says he skipped Diogo Jota's funeral because he vowed never to enter a cemetery after his father's death
Ronaldo had faced criticism after he was spotted holidaying on a yacht in Mallorca after missing the funeral
'The pain was excruciating.'
Jose died of liver failure on September 6, 2005 when Ronaldo was just 20.
By that time, the young Portuguese winger was making a name for himself at Manchester United thanks to his tricky feet.
He seemingly had the world at his feet. A regular at Old Trafford since 2003 and in a team which would bring him three Premier League medals and a Champions League (the first of five, for him), he looked destined to go on to greatness.
What we often forget is that footballers are playing through pain. And usually the rule is play first, speak about it afterwards.
Arsenal's Declan Rice dedicated a goal to his late Auntie Bev after scoring against Burnley last weekend; Ella Toone helped the Lionesses win the 2025 Women's Euros just hours after her grandmother, affectionately known as Nanna Maz, had died.
Sir Alex Ferguson has a reputation as one of the Premier League's hardest operators, but he had a heart of compassion when it came to family problems, and for that Ronaldo remains grateful.
'Probably he doesn't remember, but I will say it because it's a beautiful story. One day, my father was in hospital, and I was so emotional, very low. And I spoke with him and he said: "Cristiano, go there for two or three days," he said.
Ronaldo said he has not been to a cemetery since the death of his father back in 2005, with his sister recently recalling the 'commotion' and 'added pain' caused by onlookers at the funeral
'We had difficult games [coming up] and I was a key player in that moment.
'He said: "It will be tough because we have difficult games, but I understand your situation and I’ll leave you [out] and you can go and see your father."
'For me, these are the most important things – apart from winning Champions Leagues, to win the Premier League, to win cups and stuff.
'So I have to appreciate him, because what he said to me, he always did. I have to appreciate that.'
Ronaldo was just 20 when his father passed away, meaning he missed many of the biggest moments of his football career.
These include winning five Champions League titles and five Ballon d'Ors as well as leading his country to Euro 2016 and Nations League glory. He also missed the birth of Ronaldo's four children with Georgina Rodriguez.
Ronaldo said his father was affected by wars in Mozambique and Angola and added: 'To be the number one and he don't see nothing, and he don't see me receive awards, to see what I became.
'My family see, my mum, my brothers, even my old son, but my father, he didn't see nothing, and it was... he died young.'
Ronaldo is incredibly grateful to Sir Alex Ferguson for letting him take time off while his father was in hospital
He won the Champions League and three Premier League titles at United after his father died
A childhood friend of Jose, who served with him in the army, said that the former soldier used to brag about how his son would be the best player in the world one day.
How he would brag now.
