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Cristiano Ronaldo's anger turns into blessing as his 'thrown' armband gets auctioned for charity

WION Web Team
New Delhi, IndiaUpdated: Mar 31, 2021, 02:04 PM IST
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Photograph:(AFP)

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"I realised we had some attention and could do something nice for Gavrilo", he added.

Cristiano Ronaldo was left fuming after Portugal were controversially denied a late winner at the weekend in the World Cup qualifier against Serbia. The Portuguese skipper received a yellow card for his protests and at the final whistle, he stormed off the pitch and threw his captain's armband to the ground.

A steward at the stadium picked it up and immediately contacted a regional sports channel with the idea of auctioning it for charity. He told AFP that he suggested raising funds required to treat a six-month-old baby, Gavrilo Djurdjevic, who is suffering from a rare disease.

"He (Ronaldo) threw the armband three metres away from me, and the idea immediately occurred to me that this (sale) could be a good opportunity," the man told AFP by phone.

"I realised we had some attention and could do something nice for Gavrilo", he added.

Sportklub, the sports channel, verified the arm band's authenticity by checking post-match photos and videos. The channel then teamed up with a charity organisation and put Ronaldo's armband up for a bidding contest on auctioning website Limundo.com.

"I hope we will be able to reach Ronaldo himself... so we could help Gavrilo as much as we can," Branislav Jocic, social media manager of Sportklub told AFP.

The six-month-old infant is suffering from spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), which affects about one in 10,000 births, and results in death or the need for permanent ventilation by the age of two in 90 per cent of cases. However, the child's looking at one-time gene treatment Zolgensma, which is also known as the "world's most expensive drug". The treatment costs over two million euros ($2.35 million).

Within hours of being put on auction, on Tuesday, the armband reached the price of 360,000 dinars (around 3,000 euros) -- donations can also be made direct to the charity.

(Inputs from AFP)