Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo caused great excitement and criticism in Saudi Arabia with a gesture that was perceived as obscene. In videos circulating on the Internet, the 39-year-old Portuguese appears to be gesticulating towards opposing fans and making hand movements in his lumbar area after his team Al-Nassr’s 3-2 win against Al Shabab on Sunday. Beforehand, he had briefly put his hand to his ear. In the videos, shouts of “Messi” can be heard from the stands. Lionel Messi is Ronaldo’s long-time rival, particularly for awards of individual achievement.
According to media reports, the situation was not shown on TV, but videos of it quickly circulated on the Internet and caused outraged reactions in local media. Accordingly, the Saudi football association SAFF is said to have initiated an investigation.
Ronaldo scored from a penalty in the first half of the win and leads the top scorers list with 22 goals. Al Nassr is in second place in the table, four points behind Al Hilal.
Here you will find content from third parties
In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
