In a recent interview, Cristiano Ronaldo reminisced about his experience of hunger as a child. He spoke about three women working at a McDonald’s restaurant who would give him and his friends leftover hamburgers when they knocked on the door. He remembered them and expressed his desire to meet them again. Surprisingly, after the interview aired, those two women showed up.
The story unfolded during an interview with ITV in the UK, where the Juventus star shared the tale of the kind McDonald’s employees. Ronaldo was only 12 years old at the time. The three women would generously give the leftover hamburgers to the boys from the Lisbon club.
Ronaldo recalls, “We were a bit hungry. There was a McDonald’s next to the stadium, and we took a chance and knocked on the door, asking if they had any hamburgers left.” He remembers the name of one woman, Edna, but couldn’t recall the names of the other two.
As time passed, Ronaldo became a successful football player and tried to find them but was unsuccessful. He shared, “I asked people in Portugal, and they said that McDonald’s had closed down, but if this interview could help me find them, I would be very happy. I want to invite them to Turin or Lisbon for dinner because I want to repay this favor.”
Ronaldo’s interview was broadcasted on a UK television channel on September 17, 2019. Surprisingly, a few days after the interview aired, a woman came forward to speak on the radio station Renascenca, confessing to being one of the three people the football player mentioned. She was Paula Leca, a mother of two.
She recounted, “The kids would show up at the restaurant, and if there were hamburgers left, I would ask the manager for permission to give them to the children”…
The woman remembered Ronaldo as “probably the shyest among the kids” and explained that the boys coming to McDonald’s for food was almost a nightly occurrence back then. Leca also claimed that her children couldn’t believe this incredible story. She stated, “I just laughed. I told my son about it, but he didn’t believe it because he couldn’t imagine his mother giving Ronaldo a hamburger!”
Leca found it humorous that a professional football player remembered something that happened so long ago. She believed it showed his humility. The mother of two expressed her relief that now everyone knew she hadn’t made up the story. As for the dinner invitation, she had no hesitation. She said she would definitely go.
In another surprising turn of events, the woman named Edna, whom Ronaldo remembered, also came forward. As reported by The Mirror, Edna Carina Emanuel Caldas spoke with Record, a Portuguese sports newspaper, expressing her astonishment that the famous football player remembered her.
She said, “I am really no one for him to remember like that.” However, she also shared her joy about Ronaldo’s success, and the woman concluded: It shows how wonderful he is to not forget such little things from the past.
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