Love him or hate him, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best soccer players in the world. During the Euro 2016 tournament I witnessed a lot of conversations that were based on hate for the soccer sensation. The majority of the reasons for the hate were, "because he's arrogant and selfish." Ronaldo's actions do in fact prove otherwise. Media today tries to back up the claims of selfishness without showing the public Ronaldo's good side. Expensive sports cars, one of a kind villas, and designer clothes may be some of Ronaldo's favorite things, but so is donating to charities and helping people who are in need...
Media today usually portrays Ronaldo as "the bad guy," especially after the winking situation against Wayne Rooney in the 2006 World Cup, but here's why he doesn't deserve the hate that he receives...
1.Ronaldo inspires many young people to donate blood.
In 2015, Ronaldo partnered with Abbott; a business that encourages and researches healthy lifestyles and blood to invest in a campaign named "Be The 1 Blood Donor campaign". Their campaign helped inspire young people to become blood and plasma donors for life. The soccer star was inspired to do this when one of his team mates struggled to find blood marrow donors for his son. According to the BeThe1 website, Ronaldo has made sacrifices such as not getting tattoos, and avoiding things that would not allow him to give blood at any one time. Since he was 24, Ronaldo has always given blood on a regular basis and by doing this has helped save many lives.
2. A young boy wins a battle against a brain abnormality with the help of Ronaldo's donation.
Cortex dysplasia is an abnormality that affects the development of the brain, it causes seizures and is very costly when it comes to operations to get through it. A family approached Ronaldo in 2014 requesting a pair of signed soccer cleats and a signed shirt that they could sell to pay for their child's operation, which was a huge amount of $83,000. When hearing this, Ronaldo not only gave them the cleats and the shirt, but also donated the full amount of $83,000 to the woeful family. The child survived through the operations and Ronaldo continued to donate for the follow up treatment for the boy.
3. All of Ronaldo's charity work is done quietly.
Ronaldo has been in the papers and on the news showing off many of his assists in soccer, but barely any news is broadcasted when it comes to his most important assists: charity work and helping people afford complex surgeries. The star really doesn't receive the credit that he deserves from all of the charity work that he does, that's because the majority of media focuses on the slip ups in his soccer career, and that is the problem. Ronaldo is not selfish, the public just doesn't have many opportunities to see his good deeds.
4. Ronaldo helped a tsunami victim rebuild his home... Now check out where he is.
In 2004 after the Indonesian Tsunami, Ronaldo spotted a survivor of the tsunami in the news wearing a replica number seven jersey of Ronaldo's when found. The young boy named Martunis had lost his mother and two brothers in the tragedy along with 230,000 other citizens of his country. Ronaldo flew out to Indonesia to meet Martunis and helped raise money to rebuild his house. Martunis now plays in the U19 squad for the successful Sporting Albion.
5. Many more of Ronaldo's good efforts include:
- Donating $165,000 to a Portuguese cancer center in 2009.
- Buying cars for all of the trainers that aided him at Real Madrid.
- Paying for a 9 year old's cancer treatment for two years.
- Directing attention and love to leukemia patients during his speech at his player of the year acceptance.
- In 2015, he was named the "Most Charitable Athlete" by dosomething.org
Charity work continues to be a big thing for Cristiano Ronaldo and as you realize now, it is nothing new for him.
So before you judge the Portuguese player and call him selfish please remember this article.
Ronaldo is good at heart, as well as on the field.
