TOKYO: Cristiano Ronaldo will have little time for “cyber clones” or facial keepy-uppy when the Real Madrid superstar arrives in Japan next week for the Club World Cup.
The Portuguese pin-up met a life-size silicon Ronaldo complete with ripped abs, greased-back hair and twitching eyebrows on a commercial visit last year.
The world’s highest-paid athlete has also appeared in a Japanese commercial to promote a bizarre face-stretching gadget designed to enhance the user’s smile.
But Ronaldo, who rakes in nearly $90 million in salary and endorsements yearly according to Forbes, insisted he would be in Japan on a different kind of business as European champs Real chase a second Club World Cup in three years.
“It is a big tournament and I have been lucky enough to win it twice before,” he told Japan’s Nippon TV, referring to the 2014 tournament and his first personal triumph with previous club Manchester United in 2008.
“Of course I want to win it for a third time,” added the 31-year-old. “We are not going to Japan for a holiday. We go there with the sole aim of winning the title and to be crowned the best team in the world.”
Ronaldo, who touches down in Japan on Monday, has legions of female fans who swoon over his chiselled looks and muscular physique, which he regularly flaunts by removing his shirt to celebrate goals.
There is similar reaction when Ronaldo is wheeled out for Japanese television on his money-making trips as studio guests giddily poke and prod his stomach.
