Before becoming the highest goal scorer in the history of the Euros, the Portugal and Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo gave the world a powerful reminder of his influence as a global superstar.
During a press conference before Portugal’s clash against Hungary in Budapest, Ronaldo removed a pair of Coca-Cola bottles from their place, which, many reports pointed out, caused the global beverage manufacturer to lose almost $4 billion in stock value.
Football star @Cristiano Ronaldo removed two bottles of tournament sponsors Coca-Cola as he entered a #Euro2020 news conference before encouraging people to drink water.
Watch more videos from Sky News: https://t.co/gQ5Raqks0q pic.twitter.com/XiKgBrgjw0
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 16, 2021
However, Tim Crow, a marketing expert who has spent 20 years as an advisor to Coca-Cola, called such reports “complete nonsense”. He explained:
American investors are not driven by what happens in a press conference ahead of a European football match. It doesn’t work like that. Tonnes of stocks went down for several reasons but the two things are not related. There are a billion servings of Coke every day. I think they’ll be OK.
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The UEFA might be embarrassed by the episode but will not take any action against Ronaldo, nor will it reprimand Paul Pogba who moved a bottle of Heineken from his press conference table after France’s impressive 1-0 win against Germany.
As a devout Muslim, Pogba had very different reasons for not wanting to endorse an alcohol brand despite the zero percent option, and the mere association was uncomfortable for him as Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol.
