When Saudi Arabian professional soccer team Al-Nasr suddenly postponed its schedule a day before a friendly tour of China, team player Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) unusually apologized to Chinese fans.

Al-Nasr announced on the 23rd (local time) through social networking service (SNS), “Due to reasons beyond the club’s control, the two games scheduled to be played in Shenzhen, China on the 24th and 28th have been postponed.”

Al-Nasr then apologized for the cancellation of the friendly match in Korea and promised to work out a new schedule with the event organizers as soon as possible.

Al Nasr was scheduled to play a friendly match against Shanghai Shenhua on the 24th and Zhejiang FC on the 28th.

However, he had to suddenly postpone the schedule the day before the friendly match and face strong protests from Chinese fans.

The uncontrollable reason mentioned by Al-Nasr is Ronaldo's injury. He appears to have postponed as it became difficult for him to participate in the China tour friendly match due to the injury of Ronaldo, the team's leading player.

Ronaldo also held a local press conference and made an unusual apology to Chinese fans for the schedule change. He said, “Today is a sad day for me,” and “I feel sorry for my Chinese fans. “When you play soccer, things happen that you can’t control,” he said.

He continued, “I haven’t had many injuries in 22 years of soccer, so I’m very sad. “I wanted to come to China and enjoy the tour,” he said. “Thanks to the hospitality shown by the Chinese people and their culture, I consider China my second home. “We postponed the game, not canceled it,” he added.

The organizers promised to provide full refunds to Chinese fans, including admission tickets, flights, and lodging.

Ronaldo's apology to Chinese fans is quite comparable to his visit to Korea as a member of Juventus (Italy) five years ago in July 2019.

Even though there were no major injuries, Ronaldo did not play in the friendly match against the K-League starting team held at Seoul World Cup Stadium.

Although the Korea Professional Football League included in the terms of the contract with the organizers that Ronaldo must play at least 45 minutes, Ronaldo only stayed on the bench due to conditioning reasons.

The Juventus team even arrived at the stadium past the scheduled kickoff time, delaying the game by nearly an hour.

However, despite the cries of angry fans, Ronaldo left Korea without a word of apology.

Afterwards, fans nicknamed Ronaldo 'Nal Gangdu', a new word combining the words Ronaldo and 'Nalgangdo'. 토토사이트