The star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo recently was on a promotional tour to Beijing, China. The newly signed Juventus player was scheduled to have an interview with a famous Chinese TV presenter Gao Xiaosong. Normally when you interview someone of Ronaldo’s stature, you are on cloud nine. But for Gao Xiaosong, the experience turned out to be quite a sour one. Reason? The star footballer was late by an hour for the interview and one of the members from Ronaldo’s team swore in Portuguese on the sets of the morning show.

Gao ventured out her frustration on the microblogging website and said that Ronaldo who was late by an hour cut short the interview to 31 minutes. “The former Real Madrid star was booked to appear for 45 minutes from 11.45am. But did not show up on set until 12.55pm, with Ronaldo’s team cutting the interview off early after only 31 minutes,” said Gao. “For the sake of a complete programme, I asked for a finishing question that only took 10 seconds to answer. This is the basic professional ethics of a media person. Ronaldo also answered.” Things turned sour when she asked him about his retirement plans. This is where one of the members of his team reportedly swore in Portuguese.

According to the journalist, the questions were pre-approved by Ronaldo’s team. “As for the other party’s swearing, I would like to say I have had many interviews with Bill Gates, [Bill] Clinton, Irish President [Michael D.] Higgins and other celebrities, and the atmosphere was harmonious. Therefore it can only be understood as the problem of the other party.”

Gao also claimed that her crew was not treated well by Ronaldo’s team. “Our entire crew were hungry but they weren’t complaining, They started to rush when they [Ronaldo and his team] entered the door, and even the programme director and my assistant were driven out. Everyone understands the privacy requirements of superstars but they still work with the utmost enthusiasm,” claimed Gao.

According to Ronaldo’s Chinese translator, Gao was not the right person for the job. Had there been an attractive female host, Ronaldo would have been more accommodating. However, Gao concluded the post taking things inher stride and wrote, “The process of recording any programme has small problems, it’s very normal. Ronaldo showed frankness and humour, and overall it was a good programme.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 22, 2018 06:42 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).