More circumstantial evidence about Cristiano Ronaldo’s next club emerged late last night when his mother appeared at a prestigious Sporting Lisbon event and received a standing ovation.
The “Rugidos de Leao” (Lion Roars) is an annual awards event at the Portuguese club.
Mother Dolores Aveiro appeared bedecked from head to toe in the green and white of her son’s former club, and received a standing ovation.
“The Lions fan was the penultimate one to enter and was greatly cheered by the hundreds of Sporting fans present, a situation that left her visibly touched,” Record reports.
“At a troubled moment due to the interview given by her son to journalist Piers Morgan, Dolores Aveiro declined to make any statements in order to avoid a new focus of controversy over the Portuguese international.”
Fotogalerias – Dolores Aveiro foi ovacionada e fez furor no ‘Rugidos de Leão’ https://t.co/bPk2MwphGv
— Diário Record (@Record_Portugal) November 19, 2022
Ronaldo is likely to leave Manchester United in or before January after releasing a kiss-and-tell interview with Morgan in which he said he has no respect for his manager, Erik ten Hag.
The club has made an official statement indicating that it will take action against the player for taking part in the interview and it is widely believed that will mean terminating his contract.
Sporting was Ronaldo’s first club and he has maintained a close contact with them. They did not appear to make a move for him in the summer but their situation has changed. They are struggling to win games this season and lie fourth in the Liga Portuguesa.
They have also been eliminated from the Champions League and have dropped down into the Europa league, where they will face Midtjylland in the new extra knockout qualification round.
Rumours started to mount recently that he could be heading home after he bought a new mansion in Cascais, near Lisbon, and enrolled his children in a school there.
Sporting’s president Federico Varandas failed to quell the rumours on Thursday, saying merely that he was not going to say anything as he did not want to contribute to the “soap opera”.
Dolores has never made any secret of her desire for her son to one day play for the Lions again, so her presence at the event could be coincidental. But the timing, reaction and pomp around her presence hinted strongly that it was presaging the arrival of her famous offspring.
