Cristiano Ronaldo discovers identity of woman who treated him kindly as a child

Cristiano Ronaldo during his emotional interview [Photo: ITV]

The woman Cristiano Ronaldo said had served him free hamburgers in McDonald’s as a child has unmasked herself as a 36-year-old named Edna Caldas.

She has spoken out after the Juventus striker launched an appeal to find the mystery McDonald’s employees including one called Edna during an ITV interview with Piers Morgan.

He recalled how he and other youngsters at his boyhood club Sporting Lisbon would knock on the door of a McDonald’s next to the stadium, and be given food by Edna and “two other girls” he never found again.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner said he would like to invite the trio to Turin or Lisbon to have dinner with him if they were ever found.

Morgan insisted after Paula Leca was quoted on Portuguese radio that she was not one of the women Cristiano was looking for.

Edna and Ronaldo [Photo: Courtesy]

Edna told Portuguese sports daily Record: “I’m happy and it just shows how humble he is.

“I’m no-one really for him to remember me like that.”

She added: “This was something that all happened such a long time ago. I’m really happy at what he’s gone on to become. I never thought he would remember me so many years on.

“It shows how wonderful he is that he hasn’t forgotten small things like this from his past.”

Edna, full name Edna Carina Emanuel Caldas, also claimed she had struck up a friendship with Cristiano around the time she got to know him from his trips to McDonald’s and said she had gone for coffee with him on one occasion.

Earlier this week a married mum-of-two came forward to say she knew Edna and was one of the other two women in the trio that Cristiano said had generously given him and other youngsters who played with him at boyhood side Sporting Lisbon free hamburgers.

Ronaldo went on to become the best player of his generation [Photo: Getty Images]

Paula Leca told Portuguese radio station Renascenca: “They would appear in front of the restaurant and when there were hamburgers left over our manager would give us permission to hand them over.

“One of the boys was Cristiano Ronaldo who was perhaps the most timid of them all.

“This happened almost every night each week.”

“I still laugh about it all now. I had already told my son about it but he thought it was a fib because he couldn’t imagine his mum ever giving Cristiano Ronaldo a hamburger.

“My husband already knew about it, because sometimes he would go to pick me up from work at night and he also saw him.

“It’s funny to go back now to something that happened so long ago. It shows his humility. At least now people know this wasn’t an invention.”