On Monday, football fans in Hong Kong lined up for hours to view Cristiano Ronaldo’s trophies and jerseys at an exhibition described as the first of its kind outside his home country of Portugal.
The “CR7 LIFE Museum Hong Kong,” launched at a luxury shopping mall, featured life-sized statues of the football icon, including one capturing his mid-air celebration and another dressed in traditional Saudi attire, drawing excited visitors eager to pose for photos.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is my idol… he’s special,” said 14-year-old Alvin Lai, who was first in a queue of more than 100 people.
“He’s the most hardworking person out there,” said university student Henry Singh.
“He’s 40 years old and still going very strong.”
Cristiano Ronaldo signed a new two-year contract with Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr last month, referring to it as a “new chapter” in an Instagram post.
Al Nassr is scheduled to play in a pre-season tournament in Hong Kong next month.
Tomas Froes, a representative of Ronaldo’s family office, announced that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner will be meeting fans at the museum “very soon.” He described the 12,000-square-foot (1,110-square-metre) exhibition as sending a “strong message for everyone to achieve their dreams”.
Organisers stated that the Hong Kong exhibition will run for a year before moving to mainland China.
