Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo sparked madness today upon his arrival in Tehran, where Saudi Al Nassr will face Iran’s Persepolis in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League, the continent’s biggest competition.
Upon his arrival at the airport, Iranian authorities gave him a Persian carpet, one of the country’s cultural symbols.
At the same time, hundreds of fans waited for him at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport and along the road leading to his hotel.
According to Iranian television, hundreds of fans ran behind the bus carrying the Portuguese while chanting and waving the players’ jerseys in the wind.
His hotel was surrounded by hundreds of fans who occupied the lobby and chanted “Ronaldo, Ronaldo.”
The Portuguese is in the Persian country to face Persepolis in an AFC Champions League match tomorrow.
The Saudis are returning to play on Iranian soil after Riyadh and Tehran agreed in March to normalize their seven-year-broken diplomatic ties.
Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Tehran in 2016 after attacks on its diplomatic headquarters in that country following the execution of a prominent Shiite cleric in the Arab kingdom.
All these years, Saudi and Iranian teams have played on the soil of third countries, which has put an end to the joy of football fans in the Persian country.
However, with the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo on the awnings of Al Nassr, the situation has completely changed, because despite the differences that exist, empathy with the “7” is so great worldwide that it breaks boundaries.
And of course, if we are talking about a footballer who currently has five Champions League titles under his belt, in addition to the rest of the individual awards, he also has the same number of Ballon d’Ors.
