Recently, information titled “The director of the Al Nassr Club expressed his anger towards Cristiano Ronaldo, the footballer of the club in Saudi Arabia” has spread on the Internet.
What was written in the claim?
According to media reports, “Cristiano Ronaldo has not had a good start for Al Nassr Club. After his arrival, Al Nassr lost to Al Ittihad in the Saudi Super Cup. Naturally, the club authorities are furious with the team’s players.”
The reports said, “A video has recently gone viral on social media, showing an Al Nassr director expressing his anger. Spanish football magazine Marca says the man seen in the video is Al Nassr’s director. The director, without naming anyone, is heard saying, “Get out of here! I spent 200 million euros, and he only learned to say one word – Siuuu (which means – yes). It can’t be.”
That is, according to media reports, one of Al Nassr’s directors expressed his anger at Ronaldo because the game did not turn out as expected.
See media reports with similar claims Kaler Kantho (Bangladesh), Indian Express (India), SOT (Albania), Arabian Business (UAE), Latin Times (USA).
See some of the posts that circulated on Facebook here, here and here.
View archived versions of posts here, here and here.
Check out some of the videos circulating on YouTube with the same claim – here and here. Check out the archived versions of the videos – here and here.
Check out one video circulating on Tiktok with the same claim here (archive).
Fact Check
According to the Rumor Scanner’s investigation, The man who expressed anger at Ronaldo is not the director of Al Nassr but a retired journalist from Saudi Arabia.
Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo signed a contract with Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr in December last year (2022) until June 2025. On January 26, Al Nassr faced Al Ittihad in the semi-finals of the Saudi Super Cup. Playing for Al Nassr, Ronaldo played the role of captain in this match. Al Nassr lost the match 3-1.
Ronaldo has come under criticism after this match. In the meantime, the video of a man has spread on the Internet.
In this regard, based on domestic media reports, a report was published on the website of the Spanish football media ‘Marca’ on January 30 under the title “Criticism against Ronaldo: I spent 200 million euros on Cristiano and he only knows how to say ‘Siiiiuuu’“. found
Marca wrote, a new clip has been circulating on social networks, where an alleged Al Nassr director expressed his frustration about the result.
According to Marca, The man said, “Get out of here. I spent 200 million euros and he [Ronaldo] only knows how to go ‘Siuuuu’. It’s not possible.”
That is, Marka did not directly confirm that the person was the director of Al Nassr, it used the word “alleged”. But the local media directly identified the person as the director of Al Nassr.
Who was the person in the video?
In investigating the identity of the man in question, the Rumor Scanner team initially checked the ‘Management’ section of the club’s website to confirm whether the man was Al Nassr’s director. However, the face of the man did not match that of any of the club president, five board of directors and team management.
That is, the person in question is not the director of Al Nassr.
Moreover, as the person’s name was not mentioned in any media including Marka, it was not possible to search by keyword.
In further investigation, a reverse image search using the key-frames of the video in question found a match of the person in the circulated video with some photos (1,2) of a person on a Twitter account named ‘الدكتور ابراهيم الفريان’ (Dr. Ibrahim Al-Faryan). .
The Rumor Scanner team found that the video shared on the person’s account was uploaded multiple times (January 27, January 29).
Later, Ibrahim Al Faryan’s Twitter account bio reveals that he is a journalist from Saudi Arabia.
To know about him, through keyword search, a report published on the website of the international football media ‘Goal’ on January 23 can be found, from which it is known that Ibrahim Al Faryan is a retired journalist. He has announced that he will run for president of Al Hilal, another club in Saudi Arabia, this coming June.
On the same day (January 23), Ibrahim Al Faryan also announced the matter in a tweet on his Twitter account.
That is, the person in the circulated video is Ibrahim Al Faryan who is a retired journalist.
Bottom Line
Last January 26, Al Nassr faced Al Ittihad in the semi-finals of the Saudi Super Cup. After the match Al Nassr lost, a video titled “Club’s director expresses anger at Ronaldo” went viral on the internet. However, the investigation revealed that the said person is not the director of Al Nassr. His name is Ibrahim Al Faryan who is a retired journalist from Saudi Arabia.
So, The claim that Al Nassr’s director angered Ronaldo is false.
Sources
- Al Nassr Club: Website
- Dr. Ibrahim Al-Faryan: Twitter
- Dr. Ibrahim Al-Faryan: Video
- Goal: أخبار الهلال اليوم | رقم قياسي لكاريلو وإعلامي يعلن ترشحه لرئاسة الزعيم
