Cristiano Ronaldo will be the main attraction this evening as he returns to his homeland of Madeira.

Portugal are taking on Sweden in an international friendly on the island off the coast of Africa. Madeira has literally become a Ronaldo shrine - there’s the Ronaldo museum, the Ronaldo statue, the Ronaldo hotel and the Ronaldo airport, which opens tomorrow.

If the Real Madrid star can produce anything close to his performance in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Hungary in their World Cup qualifier, in which he scored twice, then his home supporters are in for a treat.

The win leaves the European champions second in Group B, and Portugal boss Fernando Santos is keen to ensure standards do not slip.

"We had six finals. From this point, we have five left to reach our goal of reaching the World Cup from first place in our group," he told RTP, via Goal.

"Hungary tried to block our way but we adapted very well to the three central midfielders and we did not allow them to come out and play.”

Ronaldo will be desperate to play 

Portugal’s next qualifier is in June, when they travel to Latvia. So it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Santos rotate his squad for this evening’s friendly against Sweden.

Ronaldo will be desperate to play, however, and not just because of the game’s location.

CR7 was once banned from a game in Madeira

As a 15-year-old and playing for Sporting Lisbon’s youth team, Ronaldo was getting excited to return home to play in a match against local side Maritimo.

It was set to be a special occasion for the youngster. His family were due to attend and it would no doubt be a memorable day.

But Ronaldo was denied the chance to play by Sporting coaches Leonel Pontes and Luis Martins, who banned him from the squad after an altercation he’d had with a member of staff at his accommodation.

'Punishment'

The story was brought to our attention by Marca, who had the headline: “The harshest punishment of Cristiano Ronaldo's career.”

That seems a little over-the-top, but it certainly will have hurt. The four-time Ballon d’Or winner will be eager to show Madeira what they missed out on.

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