In 2015, BC Okanagan Associate Professor Luis LM Aguiar made the media by announcing his Sociology fourth-year course about Cristiano Ronaldo. The professor believed “Ronaldo’s social and cultural appeal transcends football, making him an interesting study”. He told UBC News, “I’m interested in how Ronaldo has been used to construct several discourses about who he is, what makes him distinct as a footballer, what is his relationship to Portugal, Madeira, and his Portuguese identity”. The course addresses issues of identity, nationality, and representation, and discusses the phenomenon of Ronaldo across the Portuguese diaspora.
