Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo tends to keep his private life under wraps. However, he recently spoke candidly about how the experience of becoming father to five-year-old Cristiano Jr changed his life for the better.
"It's been incredible. I never imagined that my life would change so much," the star footballer told Spanish news agency EFE. "It was always my dream to have a child young, when I was 25. He's changed the way I think, he's always with me, supporting me."
Ronaldo, the three-time winner of football's highest prize, Balon D'Or, spoke about his son in the interview head of a documentary about his life which premieres on 9 November.
He has never revealed the name of his child's mother and has full custody, looking after him with help from his mother Dolores.
A new clip released from the documentary shows the close relationship between father and son. In it the sports ace tries to coach the little boy as he introduces himself for the cameras, telling him: "Breathe".
The 30-year-old begins rolling his eyes in faux exasperation when his son fluffs his full name of Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Averio, teasing him by saying: "Don't you know what your name is, son."
The film was directed by Anthony Wonke and executive produced by the Asif Kapadia, who directed Amy the award-winning documentary about Amy Winehouse. For his latest project cameras followed Ronaldo around for a year from January 2014 when he won the Balon D'Or for a second time.
Suprisingly, despite the adulation that comes with a multion-million pound career, the player says he is something of a loner, like his father who died when he was 20.
"My father was also a solitary person. I am probably quite family minded, I suppose. That doesn't mean I don't have friends. Of course, I do but I have four or five real friends. That's normal for me and I like it that way."