Luiz Felipe Scolari has opened up on the moment he told Cristiano Ronaldo his father had died.
The former Portugal coach was alongside the Manchester United star with the national side when the news reached them.
Ronaldo's father, José, died in September 2005 at the age of 52 with an alcoholism-related liver condition.
It was left to Scolari to tell his player, then just in his early 20s, that his father had passed.
The former Portugal boss claims it was in that moment that their relationship evolved.
He told the Daily Mail : "It was very hard. It was the moment that created a bond between us, a bond that surpasses the coach-athlete relationship.
"When the news got to us, before a game against Russia, nobody knew how to tell him and nobody wanted to.
"So I told them I would do it as I knew how it was to lose a parent. I had lost mine a few years before.
"It was very sad, but it’s the kind of moment that connects us as friends. The next day, Cristiano played a marvellous game and returned to Portugal.
"He asked to play. He said: ‘I can’t do anything for my father today, so I’ll play tomorrow and then I’ll go'."
Ronaldo received a huge amount of support regarding his father's situation.
Alongside Scolari's efforts, the Portuguese star has also previously praised the way Sir Alex Ferguson handled it.
The former United boss allowed Ronaldo to take time off during the season.
He revealed recently in a chat with Ferguson: "Probably he doesn't remember, but I will say it because it's a beautiful story.
"One day, my father was in hospital, and I was so emotional, very low and I spoke with him and he said: ‘Cristiano, go there for two or three days.’
"We had difficult games and I was a key player in that moment.
“He said: ‘It will be tough because we have difficult games, but I understand your situation and I’ll leave you [out] and you can go and see your father'."
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner has also opened up on the lack of relationship he had with his father meaning he never saw the success he would become
"I really don’t know my father 100 per cent," he revealed on ITV's Cristiano Ronaldo Meets Piers Morgan.
"He was a drunk person. I never spoke with him, like a normal conversation. It was hard.
"To be the number one and he don’t see nothing, and he don’t see to receive awards, to see what I became.”
