Cristiano Ronaldo's discarded armband sold for 64,000 euros at a charity auction

Cristiano Ronaldo was left furious when he was denied an injury time winner against Serbia in the World Cup 2022 qualifiers. Ronaldo was fuming over the decision and stormed off the ground, throwing his armband in frustration. The same armband has been sold at a charity auction for 64000 euros ($75,000) to an anonymous bidder.

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With seconds remaining in the game, Ronaldo thought that he dodged a winner against Serbia but was denied a goal. The replays later confirmed that the ball did cross the lines which left Ronaldo fuming. He received a yellow card for protesting and rushed off the ground, throwing his armband in anger.

Djordje Vukicevic, a local fireman who was present in the stadium picked it up and contacted a sports channel for auctioning it for charity. Vukicevic said that he wanted to raise funds to save a six month old baby, who suffers from a rare disease. The child is suffering spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that affects 1 in 10000 children and results in death or permanent ventilation in 90% of the cases.

However, the 3 day auction didn't pass without controversy as some participants tried to disrupt the process by putting up unrealistically huge sums. The fake bidding triggered public outrage with authorities pledging to find and punish the culprits.

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After verifying the authenticity of the product, the channel teamed up with the charity organization and put Ronaldo’s armband for a bidding contest. The 64,000 euros won’t be sufficient for the treatment as it requires few doses of the "world's most expensive drug", which costs around two million euros ($2.36 million).