Cristiano Ronaldo, captain of the Portuguese national team and striker for Al-Nassr FC, enjoyed a dinner at the White House with President Donald Trump after more than 10 years without setting foot in the United States. Accompanied by his girlfriend Georgina Rodríguez, the footballer attended the gala dinner this Tuesday 18 November as part of the delegation accompanying the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammedbin Salmám, on his state visit to the country. During a speech at the dinner, Trump highlighted the player’s presence and explained that his young son, Barron Trump, 19, was very excited to meet him in person: “My son is a fan of Cristiano Ronaldo, he had the opportunity to meet him and I think he respects me a little more now, just for introducing him to him. So I want to thank you both for being here.” And he added: “This room is full of the greatest leaders in the world: in business, in sports…”, thanking the presence of figures such as FIFA president Gianni Infantino and that of billionaire businessman Elon Musk, who returned to the White House after his departure and his public disputes with the president following his stint in the Republican administration as director of the Department of Government Efficiency in April.
Ronaldo was present in the company of his girlfriend Georgina Rodríguez, who wore a dark blue dress and who took a tour of the city before dinner. He shared some photos of the Washington Monument, the famous white obelisk of the capital, in stories from his Instagram profile, a social network on which he has more than 71 million followers. During the dinner, the player did not say a few words, but was seated in the first seats at the table in the east room of the White House, near the presidential table where Donald and Melania Trump were.
President Trump welcomed guests and called the crown prince “a true partner for peace and prosperity” in the world and in the Middle East. The dinner was accompanied by an orchestra and a red carpet that had to be covered by a tent due to the heavy rain that fell last night in Washington.
The dinner was immortalized in a selfie taken by Ronaldo in which Musk, the president of FIFA and Georgina Rodríguez, among others, appear alongside him.
The Al-Nassr football club is owned by the sovereign wealth fund PIF, owned by the crown prince. In June, Ronaldo renewed his contract with the Saudi team for another two years and became the face of the championship. His visit is also part of the country’s cultural, tourism and sporting promotion strategy, which aims to apply to host the 2034 football World Cup. The meeting also brought the footballer closer to business figures such as Apple CEO Tim Cook and David Ellison, the Hollywood producer, other participants at the dinner.
Bin Salman was received at the White House with all the honors usually reserved for kings or presidents on state visits: red carpet, cannon salute, warplane flyover and joint inspection of the troops in the gardens of the presidential residence, while a military band played their respective national anthems. During the meeting with Trump, the Republican praised the “incredible” work of the Saudi crown prince on human rights, despite the fact that, according to US intelligence, Saudi agents strangled journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul in 2018 on the orders of Bin Salman himself and dismembered his body to secretly remove it from the building.
This is also the first time the player has traveled to the North American country in more than 10 years. 2014 was his last visit during a Real Madrid pre-season training camp, playing in a friendly against Manchester United. And in 2018, Cristiano Ronaldo was reported by a woman for an alleged rape by the footballer which occurred in Las Vegas (Nevada) on 13 June 2009. He has always denied it, and in 2023 the American justice closed the case, but if the player had set foot in the country he could have been subjected to further interrogations.
