The human side of Cristiano Ronaldo: Real Madrid footballer donates $8 million for Nepal earthquake relief

Source: IANS
Saket Parekar Saket Parekar folomojo staff

With the horror of last month’s tragedy still fresh in our minds, Nepal has been hit with yet another devastating earthquake. The latest one reportedly  hit near Mount Everest, 83 kms from Kathmandu, and had the magnitude of 7.3.

Donations and prayers for the victims of the Nepal tragedy have been coming in from around the globe for the past few weeks. But one notable contribution from one of football’s biggest superstars deserves special mention.

According to a Sports Illustrated report, Real Madrid’s Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo has donated nearly $8 million towards relief funds following the Nepal earthquake.

Source: IANS
Source: IANS

The massive donation is arguably one of the highest individual contributions made following the tragedy that killed nearly 8000 people in the South Asian country on April 25, 2015.

Ronaldo, who coincidentally wears the no.7 jersey for club and country, made a donation of 7 million Euros (Close to $7.8 million) to Save the Children International, which has made ground-breaking work towards rebuilding the lives of nearly 2 million children affected by the disaster last month.

Source: IANS
Source: IANS

This isn’t the first time the three-time World Player of the Year has been in the news for his charitable work. In 2011 he reportedly sold his Golden Boot award to generate nearly $1.5 million for children in Gaza.

In 2004, he made significant contributions to the victims of Tsunami in Indonesia. He has also sponsored medical treatments for several children, including raising funds for a Spanish boy’s life-saving brain surgery in 2004.

Aside from his individual contributions, Ronaldo constantly makes an effort to raise awareness and urges his fans to raise money for various causes.

In his home country, he has donated several thousand dollars for building hospitals, for cancer research and other medical causes.

All this doesn’t even take into account the millions of dollars he has helped raise as Save the Children’s global ambassador and FIFA’s ’11 for Health’ programme.

Also read: How you can help Nepal in its time of need

Ronaldo has often been termed self-absorbed, and at times, even arrogant, due to his footballing style, his on-field behaviour, his endorsements and so on. However, his personal life seems to be the exact opposite of his on-field persona.

If his charity wasn’t enough to prove it, here are a few videos that show what a genuinely nice guy CR7 is.

When he surprised a kid on the streets of Madrid

Like that time he singled out a young fan for a hug

Or when he defended this Japanese kid who was trying to speak Portuguese

When he was nice to even a streaker

And finally, his tearful speech after winning the 2014 Ballon d’Or