MILAN | ITALY – Cristiano Ronaldo has become the latest international soccer star to test positive for the coronavirus.
The Portuguese soccer federation said Tuesday that Ronaldo was doing well and had no symptoms after he tested positive while with his country’s national team.
He was in isolation and was dropped from the country’s National League match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon.
‘Ronaldo is doing great. He is dealing very well with this’, Portugal coach Fernando Santos said. ‘He is asymptomatic, he has no problems. He doesn’t even know how this happened to him’.
Ronaldo, one of the most prolific goal scorers in the sport’s history, played in the 0-0 draw at France in the Nations League on Sunday and in the 0-0 draw against Spain in a friendly last week.
On Monday, the Juventus forward posted a photo on Twitter and Instagram showing him and the rest of the Portugal squad having a meal together. The players were all close to each other at a table, with a smiling Ronaldo apparently taking the photo himself at the front end.
Along with the tweet, Ronaldo wrote, in Portuguese, ‘United on and off the field!’
Photo published by Portuguese media showed Ronaldo on a balcony overlooking his teammates practicing below on a field at the national team’s training center. In one of the images, he was shown giving the thumb-up sign.
The 35-year-old Ronaldo last month became only the second male soccer player to reach 100 goals for a national team, after former Iran striker Ali Daei.
Players who tested positive for COVID-19 recently include Neymar, Kylian Mbappe, Paul Pogba, Paulo Dybala, Anfel Di Maria, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Diego Costa.
The Portuguese federation said Ronaldo’s result prompted another round of test for the rest of the national squad. It said everyone else in the team tested negative.
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