TEHRAN: Crowds of Iranian football fans gave Cristiano Ronaldo an excited welcome on Monday as his Saudi team arrived in Tehran for the first home-and-away club tie since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations.
Fans chanted the name of the Portuguese five-time world player of the year as he arrived with his Al Nassr teammates to face Iran’s leading club Persepolis in the Asian Champions League on Tuesday.
The match will be the first since Tehran and Riyadh reached a China-brokered deal that was announced in March.
Teams from both countries had only played matches on neutral grounds since 2016 when Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iran severed ties.
In Tehran, excitement filled the air as fans eagerly waited to catch a glimpse of 38-year-old Ronaldo as he left Iran’s Imam Khomeini’s airport with his teammates.
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Large crowds of cheering fans lined the streets as Ronaldo arrived at a hotel in Tehran on board the team bus.
Others chanting “Ronaldo, Ronaldo!” even flooded into the hotel lobby. Posters of the former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus star with “Welcome”, written in Arabic, English and Farsi sprung up in the Iranian capital’s main streets.
Sadly for the fans, none will be allowed to attend the match which will be held at the gigantic Azadi stadium, which can host up to 90,000 people.
The Asian Football Confederation have ruled that the game be played behind closed doors as punishment for a controversial 2021 online post by Persepolis before a match against an Indian team.
Both managers have lamented the absence of the fans.
