You don't have to believe a magician is sawing his assistant in half to enjoy the spectacle. When the poet and philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the term "suspension of disbelief" in 1817, it is unlikely he envisaged 200 years on we would still be guided by its principles.
Yet here we are, again, for a third time, scouring the social media accounts of the world's most famous athlete for clues as to whether Cristiano Ronaldo really could this time quit Real Madrid.
In all likelihood, he's almost certainly laughing at us trying to solve a crime that has never been committed, yet at the same time it's impossible not to become complicit in a world where we are all but disciples to the cult of Cristiano.