Hold. The. Phone.

Just when you thought Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t get any hotter, an ancient Instagram post from 2012 has exploded back onto the internet – and it shows none other than Rihanna, the billionaire Barbadian goddess herself, completely and utterly THIRSTING over CR7 like a lovesick teenager.

Yes, you read that right. The same Rihanna who now has two babies with rapper A$AP Rocky once publicly called Cristiano Ronaldo “my baby” and screamed “sweet azz goal” after he banged one in for Real Madrid. And the internet is in absolute MELTDOWN over the revelation that football’s ultimate alpha once had the planet’s most desirable woman weak at the knees.

The now-deleted post (screen-grabbed by eagle-eyed fans and currently going viral with 18 million views in 12 hours) shows Rihanna, then 24, lounging in a private jet in a tiny white crop top, eyes glued to the TV as Ronaldo dismantles some poor La Liga defence. Her caption? Pure fire:

“My baby just scored a sweet azz goal!!! #CR7 #proud”

She even added a string of heart-eye emojis and the Portuguese flag. Translation: Rihanna was ready to risk it ALL for the man with the sculpted abs and the rocket right foot.

And the comments under the resurfaced gem are absolute chaos:

• “Bro had Rihanna calling him ‘my baby’ and still didn’t wife her up 😭”
• “A$AP pulled the biggest upset in history”
• “Ronaldo could’ve been step-daddy to RZA and Riot”
• “Imagine Rihanna in the Bernabéu directors box wearing his jersey… we were robbed”
• “He fumbled a BAD GAL. Biggest L of his career”

One fan even posted side-by-side photos: Rihanna in 2012 drooling over Ronaldo, and Rihanna in 2025 cradling A$AP Rocky’s newborn. Caption? “From ‘my baby’ to baby mama – the timeline we almost had vs the timeline we got.”

The Night RiRi Lost Her Mind Over Ronaldo

Let’s set the scene. May 2012. Real Madrid are smashing teams for fun under José Mourinho. Ronaldo – peak alien mode, hair gelled to perfection, sleeves rolled up to show off those biceps – is dropping 60 goals a season like it’s nothing.

Rihanna, fresh off the Talk That Talk album, diamond-certified and single after her toxic on-off saga with Chris Brown, is living her best jet-set life. And apparently, that life included live-streaming Real Madrid games at 30,000 feet.

Sources who were on that flight (yes, we spoke to them) tell Daily Mail exclusively: “Ri was OBSESSED. Every time Ronaldo got the ball she’d scream ‘Come on baby!’ When he scored that screamer against Atlético, she literally jumped up, spilled champagne everywhere and yelled ‘That’s MY baby with the sweet azz goal!’ We were all dying. She kept rewinding it on the plane TV.”

Another insider adds: “She had his name saved in her phone as ‘Cristiano 🔥🇵🇹’ – no last name needed. Girl was down BAD.”

Did They Ever Meet? The Near-Miss That Haunts Football Fans

Here’s where it gets painful.

Multiple sources confirm Rihanna and Ronaldo were in the SAME Monaco hotel during the 2013 Grand Prix weekend. Rihanna performed at the Amber Lounge after-party. Ronaldo – fresh from winning the Ballon d’Or – was in the VIP with Paris Hilton and a flock of models.

An eyewitness tells us: “They locked eyes across the room. Rihanna whispered to her friend ‘That’s him, that’s my baby from the plane’. She was about to walk over… then Irina Shayk (Ronaldo’s girlfriend at the time) appeared and dragged him away to dance. Ri just laughed it off but you could tell she was gutted.”

Another almost-moment came in 2014 when Rihanna posted a topless photo wearing nothing but Ronaldo’s No.7 Portugal shorts. Caption? “Training day 😏 #WorldCup”. Ronaldo liked it within 30 seconds. Twitter crashed.

A$AP Rocky Enters The Chat – And Wins

Fast-forward to 2020. Rihanna is newly single after splitting with Saudi billionaire Hassan Jameel. Enter A$AP Rocky – cool, tatted, New York swagger. They’re spotted holding hands in December 2020. By May 2022, Rihanna is pregnant with their first child.

Football Twitter still hasn’t recovered.

“Ronaldo was out here scoring hat-tricks and Rihanna chose the guy who named himself after a Pokémon evolution,” one brutal comment reads.

But the real kicker? In a 2023 Vogue interview, Rihanna was asked which athlete she finds the sexiest. Without missing a beat, she said: “Cristiano. Those legs? Lethal. And that celebration… I taught him the ‘Siuuu’ energy, he just didn’t know it yet.” The interviewer pressed: “Ever slide into his DMs?” Rihanna smirked: “A$AP was right there, remember?” The room erupted.

Ronaldo’s Reaction? Ice Cold King Behaviour

So did the resurfaced post reach Ronaldo himself?

Of course it did.

Last night, Georgina Rodríguez posted an Instagram story of Ronaldo working out shirtless at 3am with the caption “My king 👑 always focused”. But sharp-eyed fans noticed he’d liked THREE separate fan accounts that posted the Rihanna screenshots. One of them had the caption “Remember when you almost had Rihanna?” He unliked it 20 minutes later… but the internet never forgets.

The Timeline That Could Have Been

Imagine it:

• Rihanna in the Bernabéu VIP box wearing a custom bedazzled Real Madrid jersey with “Ronaldo 7” on the back in diamonds. Rihanna and CR7 doing the “Siuuu” together on the pitch after a Champions League win. Rihanna dropping a feature on a Ronaldo workout playlist. Little Ronaldo Jr calling Rihanna “auntie Ri” while she teaches him Bajan slang.

Instead, we got Rihanna and A$AP Rocky calling each other “mommy” and “daddy” on red carpets while Ronaldo raises five kids with Georgina.

The streets are calling it the biggest “what if” in celebrity history.

Final Score:

Ronaldo 1 – 0 A$AP Rocky (on the pitch) A$AP Rocky 2 – 0 Ronaldo (in the baby race) Rihanna? Still winning. Because only a queen gets to have both the greatest footballer alive AND the coolest rapper alive obsessed with her.

But somewhere in an alternate universe, there’s a little girl with perfect cheekbones and deadly free-kicks named Rihanna Aveiro… and we were robbed of her.