Cristiano Ronaldo (second from right) and his son Cristiano Junior (left) running on a deserted stretch in Dubai.
Dubai - Ronaldo is scheduled to attend the Global Soccer Awards tonight, where he is a nominee along with Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe.
Published: Thu 3 Jan 2019, 1:58 PM
Updated: Fri 4 Jan 2019, 9:05 AM
Dubai has been a favourite holiday destination for celebrities who love its easy-going attitude and sunny dispensation. Sports personalities are no exception as they slip away from the paparazzi who hound them in the West.
They come to Dubai to take in the sights in relative anonymity.
The latest to visit the city is Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo, who goes to great lengths to protect his privacy.
But the star took to social media (Instagram/Twitter) to announce his arrival in Dubai for the holidays.
The Portuguese footballer ushered in the New Year at the Burj Al Arab. The world knew about it when he posted his family photograph with the midnight Burj Al Arab fireworks in the background.
Since his first post of the year, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has posted his pictures with Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai. He also posted a video of his helicopter ride as the Dubai skyline whizzed past.
His latest video post on Instagram was his run with his seven-year-old son Cristiano Junior, in a deserted area with escort cars.
True Ronaldo is holidaying here but on Thursday night he was awarded the Global Soccer award after being nominated with Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe.
A request sent for an interview with Ronaldo was turned down by the public relations person for the Global Soccer Award, saying the star was not available for any media interviews during his visit.
This has now become a trend where celebrities from the entertainment industry or sports field prefer to interact with their fans on social media platforms.
And here in Dubai, these celebrities enjoy total privacy so much so that they avoid even a brief interaction with media.
And this is just not a new, digital age trend.
I remember I had to do a paparazzi job on legendary Formula One driver Michael Schumacher in 1999. He was holidaying at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. During his stay, Schumacher toured most parts of Dubai, including a desert safari, while training to recover from an ankle injury.
At that time, he was shut off from the media.
His fans wanted to know more about his Dubai trip but no information was forthcoming. So I followed him for four days and broke the news about his secret trip.
Those days, there were no smartphones and selfies. But a German tourist, staying at the same hotel, clicked Schumacher's pictures.
Security personnel were on to him quickly and asked the person to remove his film roll from the camera.
We didn't give up and persevered by tailing the F1 great and were finally rewarded. I can say with pride that we managed to capture his moments in the desert and during his laps in the swimming pool of the hotel.
Wish I had access to a helicopter to do another paparazzi job - this time to report on Ronaldo.
sunilvaidya@khaleejtimes.com
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