Apparently, everything that Cristiano Ronaldo touches turns to gold.
It turns out that an armband that the Portuguese superstar threw to the ground in frustration during a World Cup qualifying match against Serbia last week was sold at an auction for $75,000 to support medical treatment for a Serbian baby.
Serbian state TV Friday said a humanitarian group put the blue captain’s armband online for bidding, and voila, an impressive $75,000 was raised. Not bad, yeah?
Well, the money raised will go to a 6-month-old boy suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, AP writes.
Ronaldo removed the armband following Portugal’s 2-2 draw in the match against Serbia after he believed he scored the game-winning goal in injury time.
The 36-year-old then angrily threw down his armband as he walked off the pitch, and the object was later picked up by an on-duty firefighter, who gave the armband to the charity group.
The referee who made the call, Danny Makkelie, later apologized in a statement to Portugal’s A Bola newspaper, explaining, “As a referee team, we always work hard to make good decisions.”
“When we are in the news in this manner, it doesn’t make us happy at all,” the Dutch referee added.