Cristiano Ronaldo an exceptional footballer recently met a 24-year-old superfan named Gong who had allegedly cycled from China to Saudi Arabia for seven months to meet him.
Gong started his journey on March 18th and arrived at Al Nassr Football Club on Oct 20, as reports said. He traveled to various countries like Kazakhstan, Georgia, Iran, and Qatar, before reaching Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital.
Ronaldo’s team after learning the effort the fans had put in to meet him arranged a meeting for him outside the football club. During this Ronaldo signed Gong’s shirt and took pictures with him.
This was not just a random effort it was due to the cancellation of Ronalodo’s visit to China due to a leg injury and so Gong decided to rather go visit him.
On asking him about his journey, he told the reports that it was a long and difficult journey for him. He struggled with language barriers, it was hard to get cheap meals in different countries, and of course the physical exhaustion of cycling across countries.
He covered around 13,000km on his bike while carrying 2 60000mAh power banks, a tent, cooking utensils, clothes, and other necessities.
In places, where he could not find budget-friendly food he relied on bread and to tackle the language barrier he used software to communicate with locals.
During his journey he also fell sick when he was in Armenia, he had a high fever and fainted on a roadside and later got treated for free.
Gong shared that this experience made him more mature and patient, it also led to him making friendships across countries.
He reached Riyadh on 10 October and waited several days to meet Ronaldo as he was in Europe at the time being.
Before meeting Ronaldo he also went to watch his match, as a fan offered him a free ticket to see Ronaldo play in the Al Nassr vs Al Shabab match.
Their meeting was a sweet moment they shook hands and hugged each other, Ronaldo then signed his Al Nassr jersey. He also autographed a banner with the names of Gong’s friends and inscribed the phrase, ” What I dream of is true love and freedom.”
Gong now plans to visit Portugal, Ronaldo's hometown, as his next adventure.