Juventus star, Cristiano Ronaldo, is known as an athlete who is very strict in maintaining his food and drink intake to maintain his physical condition. He is 36 years old now but still at his top performance. One of the keys is not consuming liquor or alcoholic beverages.
This was reflected in the testimony of Ronaldo’s former colleague at Manchester United, Dimitar Berbatov, in mid-December 2020. Berbatov and Ronaldo were recorded to have played together at Manchester United for approximately one year in the 2008-2009 period.
From that experience, Berbatov admitted that he had never seen Ronaldo consume alcohol. Berbatov was even surprised when he found out that Ronaldo also did not consume alcoholic drinks while celebrating Christmas with other Man United players.
“One day the Man United players had a party to celebrate Christmas. All the Man United players had fun at that time. However, Ronaldo remains professional as an athlete. I never once saw Ronaldo drink alcohol at that time,” said Berbatov. “Ronaldo is a player who takes very extreme care of his body,” he added.
Ronaldo is known as an anti-alcohol player since he was young. Apart from maintaining his body, one of the reasons Ronaldo did not consume alcohol was not wanting to repeat the mistakes of his father, Jose Dinis Aveiro, who died in 2005. Jose Dini Aveiro died at the age of 52 due to liver disease caused by alcoholism.
In 2019, Ronaldo once talked about the figure of Jose Dini Aveiro when he was a guest star in an ITV special interview session hosted by Piers Morgan. Ronaldo was crying when Piers Morgan showed many videos about Jose Dini Aveiro. In his statement, Ronaldo admitted that he was very sad because Jose Dini Avaeiro could not see him achieving his success as a footballer.
“My family, mother, brother, even my oldest son have seen me achieve success. However, my father did not see anything. He died at a very young age,” said Ronaldo. “I thought this interview would be very fun. I never thought I would cry here,” he said.
“I actually do not really know my father. All I know he is an alcoholic. I do not know why he became an alcoholic. Maybe out of frustration. I never communicated with my father like family in general. It was very painful,” he said. “I am very sad because my father cannot see my achievements,” said the Portuguese player.
Even though he was very strict in maintaining his body intake, Ronaldo actually drank liquor once. This moment occurred after Ronaldo led the Portuguese national team to lift the 2016 European Cup champion trophy.
When asked the reason why he ended up drinking alcohol, Ronaldo admitted that he was carried away by the atmosphere of the championship celebration. This is because the 2016 European Cup was the first trophy presented by Ronaldo for the Portugal national team.
“I drank a glass of champagne and the effect was up to the head. The 2016 European Cup is an important trophy throughout my career. I laughed, cried and was a little drunk,” Ronaldo explained. “At the match, I cried a lot and was dehydrated, until at the end of the match, when I celebrated it I drank a glass of champagne. The effect was felt to go up in the head very quickly. I never drank, but it was a special day,” Ronaldo added.
