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Cristiano Ronaldo, one of soccer’s biggest stars and one of the world’s most famous athletes, has tested positive for the coronavirus, the Portuguese soccer federation announced on Tuesday.
The federation’s statement said that Ronaldo showed no symptoms of Covid-19 and that he had gone into isolation, away from the rest of Portugal’s players. Those players continued their preparations for a match against Sweden on Wednesday in Lisbon.
“Following the positive case, the remaining players underwent further tests on Tuesday morning,” the Portuguese federation said in a statement. “They all tested negative.”
Ronaldo, 35, will miss Wednesday’s Nations Cup game against Sweden, the federation said.
Ronaldo played for Portugal in a friendly against Spain last week and in a Nations League goalless draw against France on Sunday. On Monday, he posted a photography of himself having dinner with his smiling teammates on his social media accounts.
“United on and off the field,” read the legend.
Ronaldo’s positive test confirmed the worst fear of some European clubs, who had fought with FIFA, the world’s governing body for soccer, to alter the rules that force them to release players to represent their national teams during scheduled international breaks. Many clubs feared that sending their players on long trips to virus hot spots, particularly in South America, where qualification for the 2022 World Cup began last week, could leave them vulnerable to infection or cause them to return the virus to their teams. Europeans.
Players who traveled now will face quarantines or other restrictions, and even miss league games, when they return to certain countries, including the United States.
Ronaldo, who plays for Italian club Juventus, had been spared the infection earlier this year when the virus spread through his team and the Italian league system. At least three Juventus players – Paulo Dybala, Daniele Rugani and Blaise Matuidi – tested positive in the first wave of cases earlier this year.
Ronaldo is not the first soccer star to test positive this fall, as the major European leagues begin their new seasons and players travel home to work for the national team. Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba was positive when he showed up for a training camp with the France team in August, weeks after Brazilian star Neymar and two of his teammates at French club Paris St .-Germain have contracted the virus during a postseason vacation in Spain.
On Monday, Peru’s soccer federation announced that two of its players would miss a qualifying match against Brazil on Tuesday night in Lima after testing positive.
While many of the major European leagues were able to resume their seasons after pausing play for several months during the height of the pandemic this spring, the coronavirus remains a significant threat because, unlike the restricted environments established for knockout rounds of this summer’s Champions League or the recently completed NBA season – players can move freely through their communities.
Liverpool, the reigning Premier League champions of England, have tested positive for several players in recent weeks. Forward Xherdan Shaqiri was the most recent, although his test result was later reclassified as a false positive. It followed previous cases related to Thiago Alcantara and Sadio Mané.
In America’s top league, Major League Soccer, several games were postponed or rescheduled this year after players or staff members tested positive. On Monday, the league announced that it had postponed the next three games involving the Colorado Rapids following an outbreak at that team.
MLS said the team had not registered any new cases, but that the decision to postpone the games “was made based on the total number of current cases and in consultation with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.”
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