Cristiano Ronaldo expresses solidarity with Nepal, Nepalis on social media

KATHMANDU: World football star Cristiano Ronaldo has once again expressed his solidarity with Nepal and Nepali people as relief to the survivors of April 25 earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks continues and the reconstruction of Himalayan country devastated by tremors is yet to kick-start.

Posting a photograph carrying national flags of Nepal and Portugual, his home country, on Facebook and Twitter, the Read Madrid striker wrote on Monday, "Hello all! Positive thoughts for the people in Nepal. Portugal and Nepal together!"

Hello all! Positive thoughts for the people in Nepal. Portugal and Nepal together! pic.twitter.com/V2rvtX9ebf

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) June 15, 2015

The Portuguese captain, however, has avoided any explicit reference to the Nepal earthquake that has killed at least 8789 people so far and destroyed properties worth at Rs 513 billion.

Earlier on April 28, Ronaldo had urged his millions of followers on his social media accounts to help raise funds for the Nepali children affected by the massive earthquake, along with the link of Save the Children's Nepal Earthquake Children's Relief Fund.

“Help the children affected by #NepalQuake by supporting Save the Children’s relief efforts,” he had posted on Twitter and Facebook.

Help the children affected by #NepalQuake by supporting @SavetheChildren’s relief efforts: http://t.co/yQdEv6XqkN pic.twitter.com/PsSMriqYj1

— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) April 28, 2015

International media reports  in May suggested that Ronaldo, also the goodwill ambassador for the global charity Save the Children, donated £5m to children of Nepal. Save the Children, however, denied the reports.

On April 29, players of Ronaldo's club Real Madrid and another Spanish club Almeria had observed a minute's silence before the start of their match in La Liga.  Players of both the teams had gone to the pitch wearing jerseys bearing the message: "Todos con Nepal" to show solidarity towards the earthquake-hit Nepal.

On May 18,  another Spanish club Valencia had extended solidarity to Nepal and paid respects to the victims by wearing jerseys with the players' names written in Devanagari script--which is used to write Nepali-- in a La Liga match against Celta Vigo.

VCF are wearing shirts with their names in Nepalese in honour of the victims of #NepalEarthquake pic.twitter.com/medqsFJxqr — Valencia CF English (@valenciacf_en) May 17, 2015

The jerseys were said to be auctioned to raise funds to support the earthquake relief in Nepal.