Did famous Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo die in a car accident? No, that's not true: Posts on Ronaldo's official social media accounts and various sports news articles show that Ronaldo played in matches and attended public events days after the claim in the TikTok video was published.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok no longer available but archived here by @..12345678910111280 on October 20, 2023, with a caption followed by emojis (translated from Bulgarian to English by Lead Stories staff) that read:
Farewell
This is what the post looked like:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Sun Oct 29 07:43:10 2023 UTC)
After the claim was published, on October 20, 2023, Ronaldo participated in matches on October 21 and 25, 2023, according to his official website and media reports.
According to an October 23, 2023, post on his Facebook and Instagram accounts, the sports star met the same day with the crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Media covering the meeting confirmed it.
A Google Lens reverse image search (archived here) conducted by Lead Stories on October 30, 2023, found that the picture of the crashed car in the claim is from a case in April 2022 in Tapachula-Puerto Madero, Mexico, where police reports say a man described as Alejandro N was the driver of the car.
