Hello, friends!
Many of us are unfortunately accustomed to believing that the rich and famous are often far from us commoners and are therefore not able to suffer the same hardships that all of us unfortunate beings suffer day today. Yes, that’s right, beings. And today we’ll talk about a simple guy whose hometown was hit by a terrible natural disaster that went down in history as the biggest tsunami to rock civilization, shaking the hearts of millions. No one knows how this story would have ended either, had there not been a global star among those who shared their sympathies.
And I think you may have already understood who this star is from the title alone. His name is Cristiano Ronaldo. Let’s start from the beginning. Martinez was a child of a large Indonesian family living in the town of Banda Ace. The seven-year-old boy’s main hobby was soccer, and one day, while playing on the field with his friends, he suddenly heard a strange, piercing noise accompanied by strong tremors.
When the boy realized that something was going on, he immediately rushed home. By that time, the frightened parents quickly gathered their most valuable belongings, and five minutes later they left their house. However, disaster struck the family when they climbed on a car trying to escape from the torment of water. And with the first strong wave, everyone was quite literally washed away in different directions. The last thing little Martinez remembered was the face of his mother, who tried to grab her still very young daughter unsuccessfully and looking ahead, this was the last time he saw his mother, his brothers, and his sisters.
The world would later learn that the tsunami of December 26, 2004, triggered by the third strongest earthquake in history, struck twelve countries, including Indonesia province of Essay, where Martinus lived, was the first to be hit by the 30 meters waves, destroying almost the entire capital of the region. And our protagonist was in the epicenter of all of it. Having recovered from the strong surge of water, the frightened boy was able to cling to a tree that was ripped from the ground, and then he made his way to a floating couch nearby, which essentially became his island in a sea of palm trees, boats, houses, and everything that had recently made up the city. After some time, when the water calmed down, Martinez found himself in the middle of nowhere, unaware of what awaited him next. And indeed, having survived one of the worst disasters in human history, the boy now had another equally simple task to survive the aftermath so that he could finally set foot on safe ground.
Looking ahead, the next three weeks of drifting in that chaos would have seemed like hell to anyone, let alone a seven-year-old boy who could not swim and had to live on the same couch without food or water. Protecting himself from the heat and rain. Refusing to give up, Martinez ate noodles from packages that floated by, drank rainwater, and tried to catch anything that looked like the food until at some point the couch washed up on the shore. On the shore, the boy spent a long time wandering around in search of people, and during that time he became very thin and of course very weak. It’s hard to say what would have happened to Martinez next, but fortunately, after 20 days of adversity, his endurance was rewarded with the rescue.
A group of British journalists flying over the island was filming a report on the aftermath of the tsunami when all of a sudden they saw a young boy on the island. The first thing the journalist did was get the malnourished boy some water and half an hour later he was in the hospital. Later, doctors would say that if the malnourished boy had spent at least one more day on that island, his chances of survival would have been even worse. Yet at the same time, the boy himself said that he was not afraid of anything at that moment and that all he wanted was to meet up with his beloved family as soon as possible and fulfill his childhood dream, namely to become a soccer player. As it turned out, in the hospital, the boy was able to find his grandfather and father, who had also managed to survive in the disaster.
But the ordeal did not end there. Having lost their relatives and loved ones, they had no home to go back to since they had no roof over their heads anymore, leaving them only to hope for a miracle. As strange as it may sound, that soon happened. Everything came together when a report about the rescue of a boy wearing the uniform of a Portuguese football player by the name of Rui Costa was shown on television in Portugal and an emotional wave of solidarity went across the country, which not only made Martinez a hero of the soccer world but also attracted the attention of one of the biggest soccer stars in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo, the then still young star of the soccer world, was shocked by the boy’s story and within days he gathered enough money for the boy’s father, Sabrina, to rebuild his family home. He even paid for Martinis to go to high school.
But as it turned out later, this was only the beginning. It was due to Cristiano’s initiative that five months later the Portuguese football Federation invited the seven-year-old hero to the Portugal Slovakia match, paying all the expenses for the child to go with his father to Europe in Lisbon. Martinez even led the Portuguese National team onto the field and Sabrina received a grant of as much as 40 €0 in humanitarian aid. After the match, Ronaldo modestly talked about how he just had to help the kid. After seeing the story, he mentioned the kid being an example to many people, proving that any difficulties could be overcome and that he was special.
Things could have stopped with this kind of gesture and with the camera showing the hero and the story going around the whole world. But as it turned out, Ronaldo did not do it for the hype. Very soon he paid a personal visit to the boy’s family in Indonesia, and when he arrived at his hometown at that time, the seven-year-old Manchester United Soccer club first and foremost visited every place most affected by the tsunami, having previously written checks for more than 100 families. Of course, such an honorable guest was given quite the warm welcome in Indonesia, but most importantly, Martinez and Ronaldo traveled together the entire time. Martinez became as if the younger brother of Ronaldo, always enveloped by the star’s warm attitude towards him.
Christiano would go on to tell reporters that he would never leave Marthunes and how Martinez became almost like a family member to him. He even claimed to have given his cell phone number to him along with the phone, to make communication easier. It’s not common knowledge how much the two spoke over the phone after that, but three years later, Christiano came to see the boy again, updating the boy’s contact list with the number of Portuguese players and finally advising the boy to train as much as possible and study English. There was no doubt that Ronaldo’s words stuck firmly in the boy’s head, because ever since then he slept with a soccer ball. He became a local star at the soccer school, and all this came to be not from his acquaintance with Ronaldo, no, but from his strenuous workout.
Despite his good results, the young man had little muscle mass on his body, and at one point his father even stopped believing in his chances of success, suggesting that he’d go to the Police Academy instead. Martinez knew very well, though, that his vocation was not to be. Not wanting to stop there, the boy worked hard on his shortcomings, and one day fate smiled on him again. While watching local team matches, a talented Scout from Sporting Lisbon recognized great potential in the boy and after a while offered him a contract in the Youth Academy. Of course, having received such an offer, Martinez was over the moon, but the only thing that upset him was that his father would not have been able to go with him.
The family was extremely poor and could not afford to live in Portugal, having the financial capabilities to neither rent nor buy a house. At this time, when the boy’s fate was in question, Cristiano Ronaldo reappeared in the family. What happened next friends, was something that no one expected. After hearing about his old friend’s success, Cristiano decided to congratulate him on his first professional contract and give him something a little more serious than a cell phone. After inviting the boy and his father to a meeting, Ronaldo presented Martinez’s family with a luxurious house in Portugal.
Considering his gift quite fair for the efforts Martinez had shown along the way. I am grateful to Cricciado for everything he has done. He has changed my life and asked for nothing in return, said the young man who even took his last name became Martinez Ronaldo and although his career as a professional soccer player didn’t work out, Martinez’s life changed for the better. Now he is 24 years old and is still involved in affairs related to soccer. He runs several soccer channels and has his blog.
In addition, he is a good friend of Ronaldo and sees him often and Christiano considers him his little brother. Few people knew about this story but for those long eleven years the Portuguese football player regularly kept in touch with his Ward and the main driving force behind his action was humanity. With a lot of money, you should always help those who are in need and one should also note that it isn’t Ronaldo’s only good deed. When you reach the peak you must always remember where you came from. Cristiano Ronaldo himself after all also rose to Fame from nothing.
Friends, how do you personally feel about Cristiano’s actions and in general about the whole story? Be sure to write your opinion in the comments and that’s all for today.