Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo to meet fans in Dubai

Football legend Cristiano Ronaldo will be in Dubai Mall next week to raise funds for international charity Save the Children.

The Real Madrid player, who will also be participating in this year’s Dubai Sports Council's (DSC) Sixth Dubai International Sports Conference, will meet fans in the mall on December 27, and sign 10 charity t-shirts for winners of a Dubai Mall competition.

He will also be a speaker at the Save the Children gala dinner on December 28 being held at the Armani hotel in association with the third Globe Soccer event, where game shirts donated by the world’s top 10 footballers will be auctioned off in a bid to raise additional funds for the children.

“We are hoping to highlight the role of sports in changing children’s lives and the commitment of those players to make a difference towards those children,” the charity’s director of Gulf partnerships told Arabian Business.

“The proceeds from the auction will be going towards a global campaign called Every One which targets unnecessary deaths of children under five.”

The ultimate objective of the campaign is to achieve millennium goal number four, she said, which involves reducing infant mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

Other players who have donated their shirts for auction include Wayne Rooney, Alessandro Del Piero, Frank Lampard, Lionel Messi and Francesco Totti.

Ronaldo, the former Manchester United striker who is just 26 years old was awarded the title of FIFA world player of the year in 2008, has a huge fan base in the UAE and is one of the best-known professionals in football.

His participation in this year’s International Sports Conference and Globe Soccer events are hoped to boost professionalism at UAE clubs and attract a wealth of attention from local fans.

It is also expected that Ronaldo, who moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 for a price of €101 million (AED495.9 million), will share his experiences with the region and give tips on how to be successful in the industry.

His last visit to the emirate was in 2007, when he tried out some of Dubai’s top tourist adventures.