The Man with the Golden Heart

I have never been a fan of football or any other sport for that matter. The only time I was at a football stadium was early in 1995, when I went to watch a ladies football match between Nigeria and South Africa in a Johannesburg stadium. So ignorant was I of the goal posts that […]

I have never been a fan of football or any other sport for that matter. The only time I was at a football stadium was early in 1995, when I went to watch a ladies football match between Nigeria and South Africa in a Johannesburg stadium. So ignorant was I of the goal posts that I actually cheered when the opposing team almost scored. I held my peace from then on and the day was saved when the tournament ended 7-1 in favour of Nigeria. During any World cup series I always asked which country won after the match, but I never had the patience or the interest to watch the action.

In spite of my apparent indifference to sports, I could not help noticing this innocuous news item on Ronaldo, tucked into the recesses of the Aminiya newspaper’s sports pages. In its edition of 23rd November 2012, the paper reported the down-played story of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 1.5 million euro donation to the children of Gaza, through his club’s charity wing the Real Madrid Foundation. I say down-played because anything about Ronaldo, the most expensive footballer in the history of the game, ought to make headline news for at least 24 hours or more. But because Ronaldo’s charity was to the ‘wrong’ beneficiaries, it remained only in the club’s publication and a few internet sites. It was shunned by the so-called mainstream media.

According to Aminiya, Ronaldo donated his Golden Boots, which he won in 2011 to the foundation, with clear instructions that it should be sold and the proceeds channelled to specific humanitarian activities in Palestine’s Gaza Strip.  The solid gold shoe fetched the princely sum of 1.5 million Euro, which translates into about 310 million naira. Gaza, which has been under an inhuman Israeli blockade for the past six years, has been the beneficiary of relief efforts mainly organised by international activists, who occasionally dared Israeli might by breaking the blockade using aid flotillas. But this is the first time an individual effort is championed by a sportsman.

In the Aminiya report, the Real Madrid Foundations said it will use Ronaldo’s donation to establish schools and hospitals as well as provide food and good drinking water for the inhabitants of Gaza Strip. The report also said this isn’t the first time Ronaldo had donated to them. In the year 2011, the philanthropic footballer had sold his football boots and donated the proceeds to schools rehabilitation projects there. Though, with a salary of 12 million Euros a year, most will say that Cristiano Ronaldo can afford to donate so generously. But it is when you consider the enormous risks he took in being generous to Palestinians that you will realise his generosity is akin to self-sacrifice.

It is a well-known fact that like international media most football owners and sponsors are people with the greatest sympathy and support for Israel. So for Ronaldo to turn against the grain and donate to the object of their collective hatred is to possess a heart courageous enough to say ‘to hell with you all.’ Born Cristiano Ronaldo Aveiro, the football star was ironically named after someone who did not have either his big heart or love for any Arabs, least of all Palestinians. Former US president Ronald Reagan was said to be a hero of sorts to Ronaldo’s father, right from his days as a Hollywood actor. He named his second son, the two-footed player and Real Madrid gem after the late Reagan.

For some reason his middle name totally overshadowed his family name Aveiro. He was born in Madeira, Portugal. The last of four siblings, Ronaldo has an elder brother named Hugo and two elder sisters Elma and Liliana. If I had the platform on which to give, Cristiano Ronaldo would have been my ‘Person of the year 2012’.  But in the absence of that, I hereby nominate him for the same award for anyone who has the platform on which to present it. For now he remains simply my ‘Man with The Golden Heart.’