CELEBRITY
CRISTIANO RONALDO DENIES BREAKING CORONAVIRUS PROTOCOL AFTER ITALY RETURN
Cristiano Ronaldo shot back at Italy’s sports minister on Friday (Oct 16) by denying that he broke the coronavirus protocol adopted for the country’s football after returning from international duty while positive for the disease.
On Thursday Minister of Sport Vincenzo Spadafora said that Portugal captain Ronaldo had broken protocol after he left isolation with his club Juventus join up with his national team and then returned to Italy following his positive test.
He is currently quarantined at his home in Turin after travelling from Portugal in an air ambulance.
“I never broke the protocol,” Ronaldo said during an interview on Instagram, adding that he travelled after gaining authorisation to do so and had avoided contact with other people.
“Someone, whose name I’m won’t say, here in Italy … says that I didn’t respect the protocol, that is simply a lie.
“I am continuing my quarantine, I am alone, my family is on another floor, we can’t be in contact and it will be like that at least for the next 10 days.”
Local health authorities in the Piedmont region said that prosecutors had been informed of the departure of Ronaldo and other Juve players to join their respective national teams while the Italian champions were in isolation following two Covid-19 cases among the team’s non-playing staff.
Juventus said on Thursday that Ronaldo, who claims to not have the “slightest symptom”, returned to Italy in a “medical flight authorised by the competent health authorities”.
The entire Juve team were back in isolation on Wednesday evening after US midfielder Weston McKennie tested positive.
Both McKennie and Ronaldo are in quarantine and must test negative before rejoining their teammates.
Under Uefa rules a player must provide evidence that he is no longer sick a week before a European match.
Ronaldo, who will miss Juve’s Serie A match with Crotone and their Champions League opener against Dynamo Kiev on October 20, must test negative on October 21 to play against Barcelona and old foe Lionel Messi a week later.
-AFP
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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