Hyderabad: A short clip of football legend Cristiano Ronaldo talking about children affected by war has gone viral on social media with people claiming that the footballer is talking about the children of Israel and Palestine affected by the ongoing war.
In the viral clip, Cristiano Ronaldo can be seen saying, “We know that you have been suffering a lot. I am a very famous player but you are the true heroes. Do not lose your hope. The world is with you. I care about you and I am with you.”
The clip is being widely shared on various socials as proof of the footballer’s support for Palestine. The video also has overlaying text on it that reads ‘Ronaldo Stand with Palestine (
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading.
On performing a reverse image search using the keyframes from the video, we found the extended version of the viral video on the official Instagram handle of Cristiano Ronaldo, published on December 23, 2016.
The video was captioned, ‘A message of hope to the children affected by the conflict in Syria.’ Besides, in the extended version of the viral video, Ronaldo started the message with “Hello, this is a message for the children in Syria.”
The same video could be seen on his official Facebook and Twitter pages as well.
The same video was also found on YouTube on a verified channel called Towards Eternity. The video’s title reads, ‘Cristiano Ronaldo’s Message to the Children of Islam – Syria.’ It was published on December 23, 2016.
The description of the video reads, “Yes, he is not a Muslim. But he sure does not ignore the truth. He stands with us. With the Ummah of Mohammad (pbuh). What about you? Do you feel the burden of your ummah? (sic)”
A YouTube Shorts of the same video mentioning the children of Syria was also found.
Lastly, we found a media report on DNA India and Relief Web covering Ronaldo’s message for Syria’s children.
According to the report, “Ronaldo, a Save the Children Global Artist Ambassador since 2013, told them that amidst a war entering its sixth year, they are the ‘true heroes,’ and has made a generous donation to provide immediate life-saving relief to children and families in Syria.”
With this, it is evident that a video from 2016 has been edited to make it look like Ronaldo is commenting on the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.