Cristiano Ronaldo some politicians and citizens, who even started a petition against the move, an action criticised by President of Madeira Miguel Albuquerque. A year later, sports website Bleacher Report commissioned sculptor Emanuel Santos to create another bust. However, this bust was never used; instead, a new one was made by a Spanish sculptor, shown to the public on 15 June 2018. Ronaldo's father, José, died of an alcoholism-related liver condition at age 52 in September 2005 when Ronaldo was 20. Ronaldo has said that he does not drink alcohol, and he received libel damages over a "Daily Mirror" article that reported
Cristiano Ronaldo Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards for the second consecutive season. As rumours circulated of Ronaldo's interest in moving to Real Madrid, United filed a tampering complaint with governing body FIFA over Madrid's alleged pursuit of their player, but they declined to take action. FIFA president Sepp Blatter asserted that the player should be allowed to leave his club, describing the situation as "modern slavery". Despite Ronaldo publicly agreeing with Blatter, he remained at United for another year. Ahead of the 2008–09 season, on 7 July, he underwent ankle surgery, which kept him out of action for 10