Cristiano Ronaldo’s act of removing the Euro 2020 sponsored drink, Coca-Cola, during the press conference on Monday, caused an uproar that resulted in the video going viral on social media.
The Portugal captain, speaking ahead of his country’s group stage match against Hungary, where he won 3-0 with the striker scoring two, removed the two bottles of Coca-Cola that led to a $4 billion drop in the stock price of the giant.
The big star then came forward holding and preferring a bottle of water and saying, “agua! (Water!)”.
Although Coca-Cola is one of the sponsors of Euro 2020, Ronaldo had no problem sending a stern message by urging everyone to “drink water”. That suggestion from the global football superstar has taken a staggering $4 billion off the value of the Coca-Cola brand.
Ronaldo has previously mentioned that he does not like sugary soft drinks, which allows him to maintain excellent physical condition at 36, which leads him to not allow his eldest son Cristiano Ronaldo Jr to consume such products.
Coca-Cola’s share price fell down from $56.10 to $55.22 after Ronaldo’s 30-minute press conference to promote drinking water over soda. The mega-company market value went from $242 billion to $238 billion – a drop of $4 billion.
Coca-Cola responded on Tuesday with a statement saying: “Everyone is entitled to their drinking preferences” with different “tastes and needs”.
One of the Euros spokespersons also told: “The players are offered water, alongside Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Sugar Zero, upon arrival at our press conferences”.
Moreover, Ronaldo said of his son: “Sometimes I’m hard on him because sometimes he drinks Coca-Cola and Fanta and I’m angry with him,” Ronaldo admitted.
“I fight with him when he eats french fries and everything, he knows I don’t like it.”
