Posts falsely claim footballer Ronaldo was given a golden motorcycle by Saudi’s ruler

"Motorcycle made of 22 carat gold, gifted to CR7 (Cristiano Ronaldo) by the ruler of Saudi Arabia,” reads the caption of a Facebook post published on May 10, 2023.

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A screenshot showing the false post, taken on May 22, 2023

A 27-second TikTok clip published with the post shows a golden motorcycle parked in a hall with a Saudi Arabian flag in the background.

The claim also appeared elsewhere on Facebook.

Ronaldo signed for Saudi-based football club Al Nassr in December 2022, making his official debut for the club in January 2023.

But the claim that the golden motorcycle was gifted to Ronaldo by Saudi ruler Salman bin Abdulaziz is false.

Competition winner

Using the InVIDWeVerify tool to run reverse image searches on frames from the video, AFP Fact Check found pictures of the same bike on an Instagram account (archived here) called “Faisal Abu Sara”.

The description on the Instagram account reads “The Storm Bike” which matches the inscription on a badge found behind the bike’s seat in the video.

The account has various videos of golden motorcycles including pictures from bike shows.

Two of the videos posted on the account in 2018 and 2020 match the video in the claim (archived here and here).

Further searches using keywords such as “Faisal Abu Sara motorcycle” and “Golden motorcycle in Saudi Arabia” led to Facebook accounts here and here with more videos of the motorbike (archived here and here). The posts credit Abu Sara as the owner.

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Screenshots showing matching elements in videos posted by Abu Sara (left) and the viral post (right)

Further searches using keywords such as “Faisal Abu Sara motorcycle” and “Golden motorcycle in Saudi Arabia” led to Facebook accounts here and here with more videos of the motorbike (archived here and here). The posts credit Abu Sara as the owner.

Also, in another video published in 2018 (archived here), Abu Sara introduced himself, talked about the process of building the bike and about the competitions he participated in.

“I’m from Saudi Arabia, we came here for a motorcycle competition. I built this bike, this kind of Hayabusa Suzuki, we built it ourselves. It is all coated with gold, 24 carats (...), all customised and handmade. We have already won many trophies, I have achieved many things, such as first place,” he said.

The AFP digital verification team contacted Abu Sara for more details. On May 22, 2023 he replied on Instagram, saying he has had the bike for eight years and it does not belong to Ronaldo.