The captain of Portugal's football team is a renowned health fanatic and made it clear what he thinks of the carbonated soft drink.
At a press conference after Portugal's 3-0 win over Hungary last week (in which he scored two goals), Ronaldo was seen shifting two bottles of Coca-Cola away from him on the podium. He then held up a bottle of water before declaring in Portuguese: “Agua!”; pretty obviously trying to encourage people to choose that instead.
Coca-Cola’s share price dropped almost immediately after Ronaldo’s gesture, wiping $4 billion off the company's market value. Coca-Cola is one of the official sponsors of the Euro 2020 football tournament.
Ronaldo is a pop culture colossus, boasting nearly 300 million Instagram followers. So, it's good news that he's guiding people away from sugary drinks towards the substantially healthier option of agua.
Ronaldo was hailed by anti-obesity campaigners, with Caroline Cerny, Alliance Lead at Obesity Health Alliance telling Telegraph Sport: “Junk food brands pay millions to sponsor high profile sporting events like the Euros, to keep their unhealthy products in the spotlight and to create a ‘halo effect’ by associating them with sport. It’s great to see a role model like Cristiano Ronaldo reject Coca Cola for water, setting a positive example for young fans and showing his disdain for a cynical marketing attempt to link him with a sugary drink.”
A day after Ronaldo’s public show of disdain for Coca-Cola, Paul Pogba of France took exception to a bottle of Heineken being placed in front of him after being named man of the match in his country's 1-0 win against Germany. The beer was Heineken’s alcohol-free 0.0 brand - which the tournament is being used to promote - and it is unclear whether Pogba, who is Muslim, knew that to be the case.
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