All this noise began after the draw with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and after Joao Neves’ statement in which he said: “We know what Cristiano has done for our national team and for football. I think he is just one to add. He is one of us, no different from anyone else. He is here to help. He played well, and the team played an excellent match. This tie will not discourage us. On the contrary, it will strengthen us. We will create more chances, and we will score more goals.”
The Mexican newspaper “Record” published a scan of a fake comment claiming that Joao Neves’ girlfriend Maddalena responded to one of Cristiano’s fans, telling him: “Tell the best player of all time to retire, he is very selfish.”
According to the Spanish newspaper “Marca”, the “fake” comment attributed to Maddalena joins the stream of posts that have spread in recent hours on social media, which attribute statements to Joao Neves or Bruno Fernandez, which they never said about Cristiano, and are receiving thousands and thousands of reposts, with millions of interactions for each one.
While the latest chapter in the frenetic escalation of the spread of disinformation and artificial intelligence came in the past 48 hours, Georgina Rodriguez responded to a “fake” and non-existent comment attributed to João Neves’ partner, Maddalena Aragão. “Wow!! This generation is coming in strong!!,” with a laughing emoji.
This prompted Cristiano to intervene and resolve the ongoing controversy, and he published a picture on his Instagram account in which he appeared with the team, with Joao Neves next to him, and wrote: “We are one team.”
