‘They’re humans like all of us’: Ronaldo’s family dines at Toronto Portuguese restaurants before World Cup match

Carlos Oliveira, owner of Mercado Restaurant, shares what happened when some family members of mega football star Cristiano Ronaldo visited his restaurant.

Just before Portugal’s crucial World Cup match against Croatia, some family members of football legend Cristiano Ronaldo made a surprise visit to some of Toronto’s Portuguese restaurants.

“It’s kind of a surreal, surreal experience,” Carlos Oliveira, owner of Mercado Restaurant, said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Friday.

Oliveira recounted his friend messaging him at 11 a.m. on Thursday, saying that Ronaldo’s mother and sister wanted to know if he had space for them to have lunch at Mercado. His friend said they heard Oliveira was a Ronaldo fan so they wanted to “say hello.”

“And I’m thinking, ‘is this for real or not?’” Oliveira said. “OK, and I actually played along with it. ‘Hey, sure, yes, we have space.’ And funny enough, they showed up.”

Some of Ronaldo’s family, including his mother Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, stepfather José Antonio Andrade and sister Katia Aveiro, arrived Thursday around noon and stayed for about three hours, Oliveira said.

Oliveira said Ronaldo’s mother appeared extremely worried about the game and that he could feel the family was under intense pressure. After greeting each other, he noted that Ronaldo’s mother said: “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to eat anything, because I’m so nervous.”

Portugal would end up beating Croatia 2-1, with Ronaldo tying the game in the 68^th minute on a penalty kick, then Goncalo Ramos scoring the winning goal in stoppage time.

Oliveira said his impression of Ronaldo’s family was that they were “the most humblest people that I have ever met.”

“It was a pleasure to deal with them, he said.

Ronaldo’s sister handled the anxiety about the game differently, Oliveira said, noting she was “an explosion of energy.”

Mercado Restaurant posted a video of Ronaldo’s sister cheering on Portugal during the family’s visit to the restaurant. Katia Aveiro is holding a bag covered with the words “Portugal” and is wearing a jersey with her brother’s No. 7 as she sings in Portuguese.

“I can only speak on my experience, but we had a truly, truly awesome experience,” Oliveira said. “They didn’t want to order anything. They actually said, ‘Carlos, whatever you like to bring or showcase, we love to try what you’re doing here,’ and that was it.”

He said they enjoyed their meal and “had fun.”

“It was almost like serving somebody that I knew for a long time. It was that level of comfort. It was pretty awesome,” he added.

Earlier in the week, some of Ronaldo’s family members visited another Portuguese restaurant.

Stefanie Alves, manager at the family-run Via Norte, said some of Ronaldo’s family, including his mother, stepfather and sister, visited the restaurant for dinner on Tuesday.

“I was taken by surprise,” Alves said in a phone interview with CTVNews.ca on Friday. “It was obviously an amazing shock, but I was super excited to have them here with us and host them.”

Alves said she was able to chat with them about topics such as food, where their families were from in Portugal and took photos.

“I was super excited to be able to connect with them,” Alves said, adding that “although they’re under the spotlight, they’re humans like all of us.”

She said Ronaldo’s family “enjoyed everything” that the staff served.

Alves said their conversations “felt so natural.”

“And it felt like I was having a conversation with a friend. It was amazing.”

With files from CTV News’ Hunter Crowther