Portugal's national mint rejects false claims it issued Ronaldo-themed coin

Published on December 4, 2024 at 08:57
2 min read
By AFP Middle East & North Africa
Translation and adaptation AFP Indonesia

Portugal's national mint had not issued a coin to honour Cristiano Ronaldo, a spokesperson told AFP, refuting posts that were repeatedly shared on social media. A review of the mint's catalogue found no such commemorative coin featuring the 39-year old Portuguese football star as of December 4, 2024.

"The country of Portugal gave an award by issuing a 7 EURO coin with Ronaldo's image on it," read an Indonesian-language Facebook post on November 17, 2024.

It included a picture of Ronaldo holding a trophy with what appeared to be two coins that bore his image (archived link).

Text overlaid to the picture repeated the false claim and added Ronaldo is Portugal's "best athlete in history".

Screenshot of the false post, captured on November 28, 2024

Posts sharing images of the purported Ronaldo coins were shared elsewhere on Facebook, Instagram and X.

AFP had previously debunked similar claims that surfaced in Arabic after the Portuguese star scored his 900th goal in a 2-1 win over Croatia in Lisbon on September 5 in the first round of the UEFA Nations League (archived link).

Half of his goals were scored for Real Madrid, with the remainder spread across his spells at Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United and his current club Al-Nassr.

Ronaldo's Instagram account posted a video on September 6 celebrating his 900th goal but did not post any news related to a coin made in the footballer's honour (archived link).

A spokesperson for INCM, Portugal's state-owned mint, told AFP on September 18 that it was "not currently in the process of issuing any new currency bearing the drawing of Cristiano Ronaldo."

The spokesperson added any news related to currency issuances would be "published on our official channels."

A catalogue of commemorative coins on the INCM's website as of December 4 does not show the purported coin shared in the false posts (archived link).

AFP has debunked other misinformation related to the footballer here and here.

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