The captain’s armband that Cristiano Ronaldo flung to the bottom in disgust after Portugal had been controversially denied a late winner on the weekend within the World Cup qualifier towards Serbia was placed on public sale on Tuesday in a bid to assist a sick youngster.
With the scores stage at 2-2 in Belgrade, Ronaldo thought he had scored the essential purpose in stoppage time when the ball appeared to cross the goalline earlier than Stefan Mitrovic cleared.
However with out know-how in use, the purpose was not awarded.
A fuming Ronaldo was booked for his protests and on the remaining whistle, as he left the pitch, he threw his captain’s armband to the bottom.
One of many stewards on the stadium picked it up and instantly contacted a regional sports activities channel with the concept of auctioning it for charity.
The person, who requested anonymity, instructed AFP he urged elevating funds required to deal with a six-month-old child, Gavrilo Djurdjevic, who’s affected by a uncommon illness.
“He (Ronaldo) threw the armband three metres away from me, and the concept instantly occured to me that this (sale) might be a very good alternative,” the person instructed AFP by cellphone.
“I realised we had some consideration and will do one thing good for Gavrilo”, he added.
After the sports activities channel Sportklub verified the merchandise’s authenticity by checking post-match images and movies, they teamed up with a charity organisation and put Ronaldo’s armband up for a bidding contest on auctioning web site Limundo.com.
“I hope we will attain Ronaldo himself… so we may assist Gavrilo as a lot as we are able to,” Branislav Jocic, social media supervisor of Sportklub instructed AFP.
The toddler is affected by spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which impacts about one in 10,000 births, and leads to dying or the necessity for everlasting air flow by the age of two in 90 % of instances.
His hope is pinned on a one-time gene therapy Zolgensma, often known as the “world’s most costly drug”, which might price greater than two million euros ($2.35 million).
Promoted
Fundraising campaigns to assist kids affected by SMA have just lately taken the poor Balkan nation by storm, elevating the required quantities for 5 infants final yr alone.
Solely hours after being placed on public sale, early Tuesday afternoon, the armband had reached the worth of 360,000 dinars (round 3,000 euros) — donations will also be made direct to the charity.
