Cristiano Ronaldo got some time alone with Donald Trump at the White House before the President heaped praise upon him at a glitzy dinner for the visiting delegation from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Ronaldo was making his first public appearance in the United States since he was accused of rape by an Amercian teacher in 2017 after an encounter in Las Vegas, which he has always vehemently denied.
After Trump welcomed Ronaldo during his speech at the black tie event on Tuesday evening, the White House shared video the next morning of the two men walking side by side, along with Ronaldo’s fiancee Georgina Rodriguez, next to The Presidential Walk of Fame. ‘Two GOATS,’ the White House captioned the footage, adding: ‘CR7 x 45/47’.
Speaking Tuesday night, Trump also thanked Ronaldo for earning him some extra adoration from his soccer-obsessed son, Barron. And now, according to expert lip-reader NJ Hickling, Trump confided in Ronaldo about his 19-year-old son’s sporting abilities.
‘He doesn’t play at all. It’s a shame, really. It’s a great sport,’ Trump appears to say. ‘You know, it takes a great player to play football.’
It’s unclear which ‘football’ Trump is discussing. He would naturally refer to the American version, which he’s a huge fan of, but has also been known to call soccer ‘football’ in the company of Europeans such as Ronaldo. And given how Ronaldo laughed at the comment, it’s possible he is reacting to Trump complimenting him.
‘This room is loaded up with the biggest leaders in the world – business, sports…’ Trump said at Tuesday’s dinner. ‘My son is a big fan of Ronaldo… Barron got to meet him and I think he respects his father a little bit more now – just the fact that I introduced you.’
Barron has been a soccer fanatic all his life. In 2017, aged 11, he was listed on the academy roster for Major League Soccer’s D.C. United. But he didn’t make it as a professional, with the President once explaining Barron’s 6ft 9 height was potentially a hinderance.
‘My son is a very good athlete but on the tall side for soccer,’ he told FIFA president Gianni Infantino in August. Trump also once introduced Barron to Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, when he was playing for DC United during Trump’s first term as President.
Rooney’s wife, Colleen, later revealed that Trump told Barron ‘I told you all the soccer players get the good-looking girls’ upon meeting her.
In DC on Tuesday night, tech founder and investor David Sacks posted a selfie from inside the event. Ronaldo took the photo, which also included Sacks, Elon Musk, Fifa president Gianni Infantino, Rodriguez and US secretary of commerce, Howard Lutnick.
‘Great night!’ Sacks posted alongside the picture, which was also shared by Lutnick on social media.
Trump’s secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, also fawned over meeting Ronaldo, who is widely accepted as one of the all-time great soccer players.
‘OH, WHAT A NIGHT,’ she wrote on X. ‘Thank you, POTUS… for hosting the most lovely dinner – pure class from start to finish. So proud of our peacemaking, world-changing President Trump. (…and sitting with the incredible @Cristiano and his amazing wife Gio was pretty special!!!).’
Ronaldo, who plays for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, is part of the visiting delegation and the 40-year-old wore a black tuxedo as he sat alongside the likes of Musk and vice president JD Vance. Others packed into the East Room included Donald Trump Jr, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Tuesday also marked the first time that the Saudi Crown Prince has been in the United States since US intelligence claimed he approved the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Trump sensationally defended the Crown Prince when he was quizzed by a reporter on Khashoggi’s murder in the Oval Office earlier on Tuesday, scolding the question and, defying the US intelligence report which emerged during his first tenure as president, said Bin Salman ‘knew nothing about it’.
Meanwhile the 40-year-old Ronaldo had not been photographed publicly in the USA since being accused of rape in 2017 by former American teacher Kathryn Mayorga.
Revealing details of the alleged sexual assault in a 2017 interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel, Mayorga claimed Ronaldo raped her at a Las Vegas hotel in 2009.
The American woman had reportedly reached an out-of-court settlement with Ronaldo in 2010, but spoke out with her accusations seven years later in an effort to seek millions more than the $375,000 (£304,000) sum she had received.
The lawsuit against Ronaldo, who has consistently and vehemently denied the allegations, was dismissed by a US judge in 2022 because the accuser’s lawyer relied on leaked and stolen records.
But since 2017, Ronaldo has not been involved in any offseason or exhibition games staged in the US while playing for Real Madrid, Juventus, Manchester United and his current team.
The matter was thrown back into the spotlight on Sunday when Portugal clinched qualification for next summer’s World Cup, where the majority of the tournament is held in the United States. Ronaldo and his Portugal team are also scheduled to play the United States in Atlanta next March in a friendly.
And before Tuesday’s encounter, Ronaldo had been making moves to appeal to Trump. In July, Trump was gifted a Portugal soccer jersey by Portuguese European Council president Antonio Costa. It was signed by Ronaldo, who wrote: ‘To president Donald J. Trump, Playing for Peace.’
And last week, in an interview with Trump’s old friend Piers Morgan, Ronaldo said he hoped to meet Trump and praised his peacemaking efforts.
‘He is one of the guys who can help to change the world,’ Ronaldo said. ‘One of the most important guys is the US President.
‘He is one of the guys I wish to meet to sit and have a nice talk. If it is here, or in the US, wherever he wants, I know he was here in Saudi with our boss MBS (Mohammed bin Salman).
‘I wish one day to meet him because he is one of the guys who can make things happen and I like people like that.’
