Cristiano Ronaldo’s fan following knows no boundaries. One of his fans proved it when he cycled for seven months from China to Saudi Arabia to meet his hero.
The 24-year-old man, surnamed Gong, started off from his home on March 18 and finally met Ronaldo in front of the Al Nassr Football Club on Oct 20, SCMP reported.
To make his dream a reality, Gong first went north to Beijing before going all the way to the west. He then made his way into Kazakhstan from Xinjiang. He crossed six other countries including Georgia, Iran, and Qatar to reach Saudi Arabia’s capital city Riyadh, Ronaldo’s current base.
Gong faced several problems on the way
His trip was not one without hurdles. He faced the challenge of communicating with the locals, eating in different countries to suit his pocket where prices vary and the exhaustion of cycling such a long distance.
Gong came up with the idea of cycling all the way to Riyadh after Ronaldo cancelled his trip to China following an injury in February. He covered a distance of 13,000 kilometres on his bicycle and carried two 60,000mAh power banks, a tent, cooking utensils, clothes, and some life essentials.
He survived on bread in countries where the prices were on the higher side and talked with people using translation software. While in Armenia in August, he was runing a high fever and collapsed on the roadside. He says he received free treatment at the hospital.
The arduous journey from China to Saudi made Gong more mature and patient, he says, while also helping him make new friends.
Upon reaching Riyadh on Oct 10, he had to wait for a few days to meet his idol since Ronaldo was in Europe at the time. The Al Nassr FC staff were cooperative and promised to arrange a one-minute fan meeting.
Before the meeting, Gong got to watch Ronaldo play live in real life for the first time after a fan offered him tickets to the Al Nassr and Al Shabab match.
When he finally got to meet Ronaldo, he says the player shook his hand, hugged him, and signed an Al Nassr No 7 jersey. He also signed a banner with Gong’s friends’ names on it and a sentence, “What I dream of is true love and freedom.”
Ronaldo is extremely popular in China and is known as “C Luo”. The football player from Portugal is an all-time leading goal scorer and has more than 900 goals to his name.
He also holds the record for having the maximum number of Instagram followers with a strength of 640 million.
Gong has decided to next go to Portugal, Ronaldo’s hometown.