Cristiano Ronaldo was enthusiastically welcomed by crowds of Iranian soccer supporters on Monday as his Saudi squad landed in Tehran for the primary home-and-away membership match within the wake of Mahsa Amini’s dying anniversary.
Followers chanted the identify of the Portuguese five-time world participant of the 12 months as he arrived together with his Al Nassr teammates to face Iran´s main membership Persepolis within the Asian Champions League on Tuesday.
The match would be the first since Tehran and Riyadh reached a China-brokered deal that was introduced in March.
Groups from each international locations had solely performed matches on impartial grounds since 2016 when Saudi Arabia and Iran severed ties, AFP reported.
In Tehran, pleasure stuffed the air as followers eagerly waited to catch a glimpse of 38-year-old Ronaldo as he left Iran´s Imam Khomeini´s airport together with his teammates.
“It was an excellent feeling, and all of us loved it,” Al Nassr supervisor Luis Castro stated in his press convention.
“We noticed a sequence of scenes and lots of Iranian followers have been even holding Al Nassr staff shirts, which was a nice occasion for us.”
Massive crowds of cheering followers lined the streets as Ronaldo arrived at a resort in Tehran on board the staff bus.
Others chanting “Ronaldo, Ronaldo!” even flooded into the resort foyer.
Posters of the previous Manchester United, Actual Madrid and Juventus star with “Welcome”, written in Arabic, English and Farsi sprung up within the Iranian capital´s principal streets.
Sadly for the followers, none will likely be allowed to attend the match which will likely be held on the gigantic Azadi stadium, which may host as much as 90,000 individuals.
‘Limitless web’
Ronaldo and his teammates have been positioned underneath the safety of an “elite unit”, specialised in securing presidential visits, in keeping with sports activities web site Varzesh 3.
The unit will likely be answerable for “stopping any contact between followers and gamers of the Saudi staff,” it added.
Ronaldo´s arrival has additionally sparked a debate over Iran´s web restrictions.
Iran has imposed strict curbs — together with on WhatsApp and Instagram — since final 12 months´s mass protests triggered by the dying in custody of Mahsa Amini.
Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd, had been arrested for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic´s costume code for ladies.
Final week, Persepolis´s basic supervisor Reza Darvish proposed that the Saudi staff be given SIM playing cards with unfiltered web entry.
“I’ve talked to the CEO of Irancell (a neighborhood supplier and sponsor to Persepolis) and requested for SIM playing cards for… gamers and people who accompany them with limitless web,” he stated.
