Cristiano Ronaldo's mother celebrated her 67th birthday on New Year's Eve.Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro has been a major influence in the Manchester United star's life with her support and care helping to make him the worldwide success that he is today.Alongside Ronaldo's late father, Jose, she helped to raise Cristiano alongside his brother Hugo, 46, and sisters Elma, 48, and Katia, 44.
Ronaldo's lovely birthday message
Ronaldo is incredibly close with his family and was keen to let the world know just how much his mother means to him with an emotional birthday message on Instagram.
According to a translation by The Sun, Ronaldo wrote: "Happy birthday to the best mother in the world, a warrior who always taught me not to give up, the best grandmother my children could ever dream of having…I love you so much, my mother! Kiss!"
It was a lovely message from the heart that really demonstrated how becoming one of the most famous people in the world with millions of followers does nothing to dilute close family connections.
Ronaldo's mum has emotional reaction
And what mattered most was that Dolores herself was incredibly touched by Ronaldo's words and we know that because footage of her reaction to the Instagram post has been shared online.
As confirmed by ESPN, a video uploaded to Instagram by Ronaldo's sister, Katia, showed the moment that Dolores read Cristiano's aforementioned birthday message.
Her reaction? Well, it could hardly have been more moving with Dolores barely making it halfway through reading out the caption by the time she broke down into tears.
It really is an emotional clip that shows just how touched Dolores was by Ronaldo's kind words and that's especially the case because the footage is so raw - and you can check it out down below:
What a beautiful moment to have captured on film.
Family love
Ronaldo and Dolores have been through a lot together and regardless of how famous he might have become, there's simply nothing like the connection between a mother and her son.
Writing an Instagram caption might not have felt like much of a gesture nor been particularly difficult, but you can really sense how the authenticity of Ronaldo's words made an impact on his mother.
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And it's fair to assume that she must be pretty darn proud of her son in a year where he became the all-time record goalscorer in international football and topped the scoring charts at Euro 2020.
However, we're inclined to think that a beautiful pair of sentences on Instagram as a birthday present from her beloved son will mean more to Dolores than any goal, hat-trick, trophy or accolade.
