2024-02-09T15:38:38+00:00
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/ Al-Nassr Club player, Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo, sparked controversy in Saudi Arabia after he made an “indecent” gesture following his team Al-Nassr’s loss to its rival Al-Hilal in the final of the Riyadh Season Cup friendly football tournament, yesterday, Thursday.
Ronaldo, 39, appeared angry after the match when a fan threw a Al Hilal flag, so Ronaldo grabbed it, put it inside the front of his pants and then threw it to the crowd.
The incident sparked widespread anger in Saudi Arabia, with calls for him to be punished and even expelled from the country as a result of the recurrence of such incidents.
In a comment he wrote on the “X” platform, Saudi sports critic Khalaf Malfi described what happened as “disgusting.”
Melfi said that this is not the first incident in which the Portuguese star has been involved, attributing the reason for this to the fact that he “did not find the minimum punishment!!” in the past.
Malfi called on those in charge of managing the sports file in Saudi Arabia to punish Ronaldo and “confront his insults.”
In turn, Hassan Al-Naqour, a Saudi businessman, investor, shareholder in the English club Chelsea, and honorary member of the Al-Hilal club, wrote that Ronaldo did not limit himself to the “immoral move,” but before that, he “insulted the workers in the stadium and asked the players to leave before the coronation,” and other things.
Others compared the actions of Argentine star Lionel Messi to Ronaldo, with a commentator named “Majid” writing that Messi came to Riyadh and his team, Inter Miami, suffered a heavy defeat, but he did not display any offensive behavior.
On the other hand, others defended the Portuguese star and saw that what he did was the result of repeated provocations from Al-Hilal fans.
This is not the first time Ronaldo has been criticized since his arrival in Saudi Arabia at the end of 2022.
Last April, Ronaldo made an “indecent” gesture after the end of his team Al-Nassr’s match against Al-Hilal in the Saudi Professional League, which sparked widespread anger that reached the point of demanding the termination of his contract with the club and his expulsion from the country.
Ronaldo appeared in a brief video clip after the end of the match, which ended with his team losing by two clean goals, touching sensitive parts of his body and laughing as he headed to the locker room, amid chants that seemed to criticize his disappointing performance in the match.
Ronaldo was subjected to a lot of criticism during the match after he gave a performance similar to that of a wrestler, according to the CBS Sport website.
Ronaldo appeared in a shot during the match running after Al Hilal player, Gustavo Cuellar, jumping into the air and wrapping his arm around Cuellar’s neck to knock him to the ground, as if he was in a professional wrestling match.
Ronaldo received a yellow card for this mistake, and he may have been lucky to avoid a red card, according to the website.
CBS Sport mocked Ronaldo’s move with Cuellar, noting that he might be able to explore his talents in wrestling rings in the future when he decides to step away from football.
Ronaldo moved to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in a sensational free transfer deal in December 2022, given its reported value of more than 200 million euros.
Ronaldo’s move to Saudi club Al-Nassr came after a major crisis with Manchester United and its coach, Erik ten Hag, after the player gave a television interview in which he criticized the club and the coach, in light of his lack of basic participation with the team.