A boy whose idol is soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo was brought to tears when he was surprised with tickets to see him play in person.
Ever since he was young, 12-year-old Axel, from San Diego, California, has loved soccer, basing his game off his idol, the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Axel would spend hours at a time watching videos of Cristiano Ronaldo, his mom Denisse, 32, said, hoping to one day see him in person.
So, Denisse and her husband decided to make the 12-year-old’s dream happen, spending a long night trying to get tickets to Portugal’s World Cup warm-up match against the United States, in April.
Having secured tickets to the game, which were in high demand, Denisse decided to wait until Christmas to surprise Axel, who she had already purchased a Ronaldo jersey for.
On the day, a grateful Axel beamed with happiness when he opened the jersey – but then came the big surprise.
When he saw the tickets to the match in Atlanta in his gift bag, the 12-year-old immediately burst into tears of happiness.
Denisse later shared a clip of the moment on social media, with the post gaining hundreds of thousands of views.
She said: “Ever since Axel was a little kid, he loved soccer and grew up admiring Cristiano Ronaldo.
“He would spend hours watching videos of him and dreaming of seeing him play one day.
“One night, my husband found out Cristiano was going to play in Atlanta, Georgia for the Portugal vs. USA match.
“It is also my husband’s dream to see him, so he immediately started to think of ways to make this possible for him.
“After a long night, we got him the tickets and decided to wait until Christmas to surprise him.
“when he discovered the tickets, he was in complete shock. His reaction was priceless, and so emotional.
“He immediately started crying and we did too. He was so happy and excited knowing he will be able to see his favorite soccer player.
“Me and his father could not be happier to be able to make his dream possible.
“Everyone I know that has seen the video has told us they couldn’t stop crying.”
