Soccer
No player is bigger than a club. But Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be an exception to it when it comes to fans.
Real Madrid kicked off their 2018 La Liga campaign at Santiago Bernabeu against Getafe with a half empty stadium. Los Blancos had the worst crowd compared to the Ronaldo era. Only 48,466 appeared on the stadium to watch Real beat Getafe by 2-0.
48,466 spectators at the Santiago Bernabeu tonight. This is the worst attendance to the Real Madrid field in a league game in almost a decade (from May 24, 2009 in which there were 44,270 spectators).
I wonder which player brought people to the Bernabéu
— Madridista Haven¹³ (@MadridistaHaven) August 19, 2018
The last time the UCL champions has the worst crowd at home was in 2008/2009 season, just a game before Ronaldo made his Real Madrid debut.
With Ronaldo's transfer to Juventus, a large number of fans failed to attend the season's first game, with the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's shadow cast large over the empty seats in the stadium.
Real defeated Getafe by 2-0 with goals coming from Dani Carvajal and Gareth Bale. Bale failed to net Real's season opener for the first time last four season but caught up the assist for Carvajal. Bale and Marco Asensio were unlucky as they hit the woodwork once each.
The empty seats at Bernabeu were not just because of Ronaldo but due to unfavorable time and lack of new faces in the club. Julen Lopetegui has not made any top signing this summer and played with the players who played the last season.
But the facts can't be denied.
Ronaldo's Seris A debut filled Chievo Verona's stadium and also the balconies with huge followers. Juventus earned nearly 7 million followers on social media after Ronaldo joined the club.
Juventus also sold out the season's tickets in some hours despite the price, being increased by 37%, which is just because of Ronaldo.
This is Ronaldo Effect.
Some tweets about Ronaldo Effect:
The #Ronaldo effect:
Juventus had 18.3m views on their YouTube channel from January to June. They had 36.3m in July alone when Ronaldo joined. [VS] pic.twitter.com/qoTKwxhu2A— Juvefc.com (@juvefcdotcom) August 3, 2018
''The Ronaldo effect'' - @Cristiano
Poster for the new #Championsleague season!Leave a ?? and maybe he'll see it! pic.twitter.com/TNa6tjUXZ9
— Hunters (@Graphichunters_) July 20, 2018
???? Number of @Cristiano Ronaldo jerseys sold by @JuventusFC in 1 day:
?? 520,000
?? Total @JuventusFC jersey sales in 2016:
?? 850,000
?? The CR7 effect. pic.twitter.com/0QeOEK30Vq
— SPORF (@Sporf) July 16, 2018
This could be called "Ronaldo effect"! Take a look at those numbers! Unbelievable! ???????????? pic.twitter.com/QF17yl451q
— SofaScore (@SofaScore) July 13, 2018
