#quotes about cristiano

[all-about-cr7]

Kaká: “Cristiano’s tears were our tears.”

💖

[player1064]

Was gonna go to bed early tonight bc I didn't sleep last night but uh needless to say that plan was not successful.... have a supercut of Gary embracing men

[pedripics]

"He is still the same as when he was 5 years old. That's the best thing about him."

(via Revelo - July 2023)

"Now I'm not going to be able to mess with him or make jokes. I'm not going to be able to hit him, because if he's going to hit me back...", laughs Rubén Delgado when we talk about the strengthened physique of Pedri, whom he coached between the ages of 9 and 12 at U.D. Tegueste, when he was a " just small boy, but what he had from a young age was great footballing ability". Pedri has always said that Rubén is the coach who taught him how to compete.

"He arrived at Barça with 60 kilos, very little, and when he completed his first season with Barça he had already gained three or four kilos. With Koeman, he started to do the same work as he does now in that first year, with three days a week of more strength training. Then two, then one, because he arrived as a youngster and there was even the possibility of going out on loan; he even had offers from Bayern to go out on loan. What happened was that when Koeman saw him train, everything changed. From 'we're going to give him a work plan of three days a week' he became a starter, playing every three days, he played everything and, obviously, you then can't have three days of strength work, it's impossible," explains a person close to the midfielder, whom we will call E.P.

"This year is the first time that he has had a real five-week holiday. De la Fuente wanted to take him to the Nations League, but in the end, Barça and the Federation came to their senses and understood that the best thing was to let him rest, have a normal summer for the first time since he is at the highest level and take advantage of it to train, because in the end that way you can see his evolution. He's had five weeks in which he's been able to rest but, above all, to train, because in competition the muscle is eaten away, especially in the lower body. Maybe Tchouameni, who has a great physique, can do more. What Pedri has is a lot of endurance. When he was a kid, he also did athletics at school as an extracurricular activity, and he was very good. That resistance lacked to generate muscle. Chema Martínez has one type of muscle, Usain Bolt another. He had a more fibrous muscle and now he had to gain a bit more volume for 1v1s, and also at the lower body level. The image that has made an impact is that of the arms, but the work above and below has been compensated and worked on following a guideline set by Barça", says E.P., who puts Pedri's current weight at 67 kilos.

The Tenerife native has gained two kilos with that physical work done this summer and is not recommended to gain "more than one". "To take him to the 70 would be too much. That would be the limit. What all parties consider is that he is a player who has to gain muscle mass but he shouldn't change his physiognomy completely. He is a lightweight footballer. His mental rapidity leads him to have quickness of movement, to have some dribbling. If he is heavy with the size he is, 1.74m., he would become in quotes, a 'barrel'," explains E.P., who is clear about what is not the goal in the work that the Barça midfielder is doing: "The objective is not to turn him into a muscular beast because he is not like that. He has a similar physique to Messi. Messi is obviously the best, I hope he comes as close as possible, but he will never be able to be Cristiano. Neither Messi nor Pedri could be Cristiano. Neither does he have the physique of Gavi, who has a more powerful lower body, but Gavi's style of football demands more of that than Pedri's game. It would be a mistake", reflects E.P., who specifies that the Tenerife native has done "a lot of cycling, eccentric pull-ups - those where you go up and then you have to hold on when you come down - and work on the pitch, above all".

'Four Friends'

Those who have closely experienced the physical work and nutritional diet that Pedri has followed during these five weeks have been Dani Carreras, Fran Llarena and Rubén Suárez, the three best childhood friends of the footballer, ex-players of Tegueste, where they were under Rubén's orders.

The 'Four friends', like David Trueba's novel, have shared a summer in a villa in Adeje (Tenerife), although their coexistence has been stricter and based on rest, physical work and a rigorous diet that they have all followed. "In the villa, we had a cook who prepared the food for Pedri's diet. Lots of vegetables, lots of vegetables with spices and fish, sometimes meat. But above all, lots and lots of vegetables. I wanted to eat more, but well, we've adapted to him", says Dani, a striker in the team that Pedri played for from "4 to 16-17 years old".

"It has been a hypercaloric diet, with a high intake of calories to be able to compensate for the expenditure of energy and to be able to evolve the muscle. It depends on the day, the work to be done, the moment, but it has been over 3,000 calories," says E. P. with a figure that is far from the perception of Pedri's friends.

"We ate a lot but, of course, few calories in reality: a lot of vegetables, obviously more than five pieces of fruit a day, when it was time for pasta we ate a lot of pasta, but always in measured quantities. We could skip it a bit because the diet wasn't really for us but for him. Everyone followed his diet...", laughs Fran, Pedri's friend "practically since they were born". "My mother put me into a small football team when I was 3 and he was put into the same football team from 3 to 5 years old. We also lived super close here in Tegueste, about 200 meters away, and we've always been friends since we were kids," says Fran, mediocre "like Pedri, but a bit further back. "

They played together until they joined the youth team, when Fran was signed by Tenerife. This summer, as well as being a friend, he has acted as a personal trainer to the Culé footballer. "He has worked every day: in the gym, he worked five days, rested on Saturdays and Sundays, and outside of it is true that he worked more because we went to the football pitch almost every day for speed training and cardio. We went here in the south of Tenerife, to Tenerife Top Training - where I am also told that Courtois occasionally goes - to a field called T3, and there we worked with cones. I helped him with explosiveness, if I had to pass him balls, put the cones on him... I helped him and trained with him. There was a day when he killed me to run with him and I said: 'No more'", recalls Pedri's friend, with whom he has also shared afternoons of paddle tennis and paddleball.

They have hardly left the village for anything other than training or eating out one day a week. In Adeje, they have enjoyed the swimming pool, "we have played a lot of Monopoly and Catan, and cards, baraja española (spanish card deck); al Presidente", says Dani.

It's been days based on the physical and nutritional discipline that Pedri has been fulfilling to the letter, with a self-demanding attitude that has grown as a result of the injury he suffered last February against Manchester United in the Europa League. In a solo action, he injured the rectus anterior of his right leg. It was the 41st minute. He himself asked to be substituted. That day was a before and after for the player, explains Fran: "He is very demanding because he has already had several injuries and since then he has changed his training and eating patterns to try not to relapse. His nutritionist was on top of it, because there have been many injuries to the same muscle in the 2-3 years he has been in professional football, this would be his fourth, which is noticeable at the end of the day; the 70 games he played in his first year at Barça are going to take their toll on him now, at any time. He's always taken care of his training, but this time it's more exaggerated".

A task in which he is helped by his disciplined personality. "He has never, never, never been a soft drink drinker, he always drinks water or isotonic drinks, sports drinks", Dani explains. Rubén recalls that "he has never been one for sweets either". "He likes chocolate, but chocolate products are another thing that has completely disappeared: sweets. In fact, he goes to events and takes his heavy, calibrated snack, his fruit, grapes with I don't know what nuts... And, look, one thing he loves, a healthy vice, is pistachios. He loves them, but he can eat very little because it's a good source of energy, but the ones he eats he eats without salt and so, zero problems. There is another food that he has been eating since he was little, obviously, which is bananas. He can put bananas in everything, it's incredible. Before Plátano de Canarias was his sponsor, when he started as a professional, he put a banana in his boot. Now he eats, but the range of fruits has expanded a lot. And another thing about Pedri is that he never drinks coffee. We've joked with him once or twice: 'Oh shit, if you drank coffee, you'd get nervous from time to time and you wouldn't be the same anymore'," says E.P. anecdotally, who also reflects a striking feature of Pedri's personality that is helping him to follow a disciplined life: punctuality.

"He's hyper-punctual. You say 'This is a Canarian, a relaxed guy...', and yes he has that relaxation, that pause, that semi-Caribbean Canarian tranquillity, but in terms of punctuality, he's a fucking German. He has many points of discipline but before they weren't united in anything. Now everything has some guidelines, it's blending and uniting well," reasons E.P., who says that Barça, "at least since the arrival of Xavi", forces them to have lunch or dinner at the Ciudad Deportiva.

Rosi’s Croquetas

But there is a common denominator between the four voices that paint Pedri's sporting and nutritional life: the croquettes of his mother, Rosi, which the Tenerife player himself mentioned on Saturday during Barça's American tour when asked about his physical change. "Above all, not eating my mother's croquettes," said the player.

"His mother is a spectacle, she's a machine. Her croquettes are a different story," Dani laughs. "The only treats are his mother's food or going out to eat. I had one meal a week off, so maybe we'd go out to eat somewhere, healthy food too, but eating differently from what your diet is. And it is true that he ate pistachios, he usually eats a lot of them, because he likes them, but healthy ones, of course, without salt. And little else", explains Fran.

"He has always had a fairly balanced diet and well, above all, the famous mother's croquettes, he was very well fed," says Rubén, who assures us that "you need to take time to try them because they are delicious." "They offer a variety: chicken, cod... They have it all. I can vouch for it, I recommend it," he says with a laugh.

Rosi is Pedri's mother and cook at the Tasca Fernando, which she runs with her husband and the footballer's father "at the entrance to Tegueste on the Nacional", explains E.P. "It's the typical small-town place, traditional, where you eat very good homemade cuisine, with very good produce. And of course, Pedri ate there every day until he went to Las Palmas, where he stayed in the residence, in La Casa Amarilla. They could make him slightly different dishes, but in the end, he ate what was available. It’s a normal, ordinary, hard-working family. When they go to see him in Barcelona, they also cook for him, but now the whole family is very conscientious and they are helping him a lot", he says.

His brother Fernando has played a key role in his healthy eating since his arrival at FC Barcelona. "He lives with his brother in Barcelona, near Ciutat Esportiva. As the first year they were at Barça was the year of the pandemic, they went to live together. Fernando studied cooking. He is two years older but as Pedri was always ahead of his time, they played football together for many years. They are like friends and brothers at the same time, and he cooks for him".

"Skinny and tiny"

Talking to Dani, Fran and Ruben has been visualizing the Pedri who started playing football in Tegueste in his earliest childhood, when their lives came together and it was clear to all three of them that that "weak and small" child would go far. "He had something," says Rubén, who always told his partner and his parents, to those around him. "It was to be expected," Fran says. His coach recalls how the three, Pedri, Dani and Fran, "were very good, were the best, and super nice people."

"He has always had a mentality that is not cold, because he is not cold, but a very relaxed mentality, so to speak. If the game is at 100, he would stay at 25, to give you an idea. And that control, and especially at the ages that I coached him, it was very difficult to see a child who controlled the guidelines of a match as much as him; who knew that if the match was very, very tense, he would take it to his own ground and take it to where he wanted it to be. And it's very difficult to find that at that age. Obviously, today you see him and it's even more difficult because you see him inside a stadium with so many people, and with that calmness that he shows and that relaxation and that control of his state, it's very difficult to find that in a player and, above all, as young as he is, who is only 20 years old", recalls Rubén, the coach who moved Pedri's position from the front to the centre of the pitch.

"From a very young age, he stood out from the rest. He did things that a normal 9-year-old didn't do. I always highlight one thing about him and that is that on a footballing level, he obviously had spectacular technique, quality and physique. Because despite being so small he was the first to attack, the first to defend, a spectacular sacrifice towards his teammates... But if there's one thing I've always highlighted about him, it's the footballing maturity he had at the age of 9. He knew how to position himself, he knew where he had to be at all times, which even nowadays professional players work on and not all of them are practically ready. And he, at 9 years old, already knew how to read a game, he already had a very adult sporting maturity for the age he was", says the coach proudly.

"I remember that when in one of the many games in which he was playing and he was killing it and doing things that were not normal, of course, the game ended and at that time I asked him: 'Hey, why did you decide to do this?', and any other child would have said to me: 'Well, look, I did this because I saw it like this…'. And he came in with the little soft voice he had and said, 'I don't know, Ruben, it just came out of me. ' And my colleague and I looked at each other like: 'It just came out of you?, but I didn’t even do that at 25 years old…", recalls the coach.

A similar situation to the one we experienced in the 2021/22 season, when on April 3 Pedri gave Barça a 1-0 victory over Sevilla and placed Barça second in the table. "He cuts once, twice, three times and then hits it with his left. He said he didn't know what he had done, that it just came out of him like that," remembers Rubén, who confesses that when he had the opportunity to talk to Pedri he told him: "Man, that was the same thing you said to me when you were 9 years old."

"The problem for me is that as I've known him all my life, I'm not surprised by what he does. Yes, on the one hand, he surprises me sometimes, when I realise and say: 'Woah, my friend is doing this' and I see him in a different way, but only for a moment because then I remember that it's him and that it was to be expected. From the minute he stepped on a professional pitch he remained the same. He doesn't care who he plays against. Even when we were little, we played on a court, in a pavilion, and he would tell me: 'You play with me', and the brother, and we would play against 20-year-olds, and we were 14. And they'd say, 'Well, come on, but just for a bit.' There were three teams and the one that won was still there. So we got with the team, we were 14 years old and some were 16 and 17, and we beat kids who were 20, 21, 25, and of course, they were shocked. They said: 'But what about these kids?', and especially with Pedri, because he was the youngest and the best. If you see him doing that on the pitch from a young age, with 20-year-olds, knowing that he doesn't care if he gets kicked, or if he gets his body thrown around, or if they take him out, because that has adapted him to professional football, it doesn't surprise you" recalls Fran about a physical and sporting stature that has always accompanied Pedri. Just like the Barcelonismo, which he also lived from his cradle. His grandfather Fernando founded the Peña Barcelonista de Tenerife-Tegueste.

"He is still the same as when he was 5 years old. He's the same person. That's the best thing about him. He also has a very good family that helps him keep his feet on the ground. When you're with him, you say: 'And this guy is playing for Barcelona'. Also, one thing he has is that when he gets picked on... Maybe you say to him: 'How few goals you score'. Me, for example, I'm a big fan of screwing with him. Yes, yes, I don't know what, but you don't score goals', I say things like that. And when he's picked on, he always gets it. And this year is going to be quite important for him and for Barça. He's going to start to be one of the leaders, I think. He already is, but his character is not that of a leader, but the way he plays. He's a very fundamental player, but he doesn't feel like a leader. No way, no way, that's not the case", admits Dani, who reveals Pedri's joking character. "He seems shy, but he jokes a lot, he's always joking around, with everyone in general. I'm always calling him silly and stuff like that," he laughs.

Calm, familiar, punctual… and with a low heart rate

"The important thing is that you have clear ideas, because at the end of the day, that life is not easy. It's very easy for many things but it's not always easy to carry all of it, not being able to go out, that kind of thing. That he knows his priorities and that he doesn't get too carried away, that's the key for me, beyond a kilo more muscle or not, because you have to be very good in everything and that luck is with you, but if you're not focused, success will not last long. He is familiar, calm, with a low heart rate. May he continue like that", asks E.P. for the future of Pedri, who is going to live an important year this season after the departure of Busquets, the arrival of Gundogan and his demanding summer to get back in top physical shape.

"When he has been asked the typical question: 'What do you need to improve on,' he has never said anything other than these concepts: more goals and physical improvement. In five months, he scored seven goals. If he hadn't been injured, he would have doubled that. This year he should have at least 10-12 goals. Xavi asks him to do that and he will always work to the maximum", explains E.P.. When the competition begins we will see how he establishes his physical form on the pitch. His appearance is already improved, muscular, in a "work of prevention and evolution" that his friends hope to see in sporting terms, in the present and in the future.

"Remember that he is still only 20 years old, normally a footballer explodes at 25, 26, 27, 28 years old. And that's the beautiful thing, that he still has fifteen years of football left and hopefully he continues to rise," says Fran.

"You know what happens? He has the gift of knowing how to win people over. He has a great gift for companionship. So, he is lucky that if he says 'everyone around here', I think they will follow him. Why? Because he has that gift, he has the personality he has, a personality that engages, that transmits good vibes, as they say around here. He is still a bit young to perhaps be a leader, but it is true that I think that at "Barcelona they have noticed that his presence on the field helps the team play in one way or play in another. And I think that is being a leader," Rubén reasons.

Winning leagues, taking Barça back to great heights in Europe, winning a European Championship or a World Cup are some of the challenges that the four protagonists outline around Pedri, but one stands out above all: after having lifted the Golden Boy 2021, it would be to win the Ballon d’Or. "It would be a dream for all of us," says Rubén with a huff. "It’s just that this kid surprises you every day, you don't know where his ceiling is, he's only 20 years old," stresses Fran.

E.P. has this to say on the matter: "It's not something that torments him or keeps him up at night, he prioritises the collective trophies, but obviously it's a consequence of everything, it's an evolution. Neither Iniesta nor Xavi managed to win it, none of his idols have been able to do it. Rodri has done very, very well and his team has performed very well. There is already talk that Rodri could or should have a Ballon d'Or. If Pedri continues to be one of Barça's flagship players, as he practically already is, and Barça regains its usual status of the last 20-25 years and the national team is up there, then why not, but that's a long way to go. To win a trophy of this type, you have to have powerful collective trophies, because Haaland or Cristiano could win it if they score 50 goals, but it's different with him. Let's see, for the moment, how he settles in this new season in which he wants to have continuity again".

And it’s up for the future to see how his new physique responds, but if there is one thing that does not generate doubt among his friends it is his name: "With this new bodybuilding, is it going to be necessary to call him Pedro instead of Pedri at some point?" I asked. Dani laughs before remembering that Pedri was given the name when he was 8-9 years old, "because there were two Pedros in the team and the other one was much bigger than him, so they kept calling him Pedro and him, who was much smaller, Pedri". "For us and for everyone he will always be Pedri," adds Rubén. "He is Pedro González López. Maybe when he is 55 and playing dominoes in his village they will start calling him Pedro, but in the meantime, I doubt he will stop being Pedri", reflects E.P. "Pedri is and will always be Pedri", says his friend Fran.

[mariacallous]

“Now, how long will this take? The Ukrainians behave like charlatans and we continue to pay,” reads a quote in French next to a picture of Taylor Swift on what looks like a promotional poster for an upcoming tour. “That is not right.”

“Every time the Ukrainians get money, everything goes wrong,” reads another quote in German next to a picture of Selena Gomez on what appears to be a page taken from a fashion magazine.

"It's just disappointing how the Ukrainians use our help,” a quote, also in German, reads next to a picture of Kim Kardashian speaking on stage. “Someone needs to stop this, seriously."

Though the images make it look like these quotes were said by Swift, Gomez, and Kardashian, they weren’t. They were the product of a pro-Russian network of fake Facebook and X accounts that created and disseminated an ad campaign suggesting that some of the most famous people in the world back Russia and detest Ukraine. Among the celebrities included are Beyoncé, Oprah, Gigi Hadid, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Cristiano Ronaldo. “Supporting Ukrainians is unacceptable,” reads a quote next to a photo of Oprah. “Their actions destroy lives and societies.”

The disinformation campaign, which was launched in November, reached at least 7.6 million people on Facebook alone, according to a database of the ads reviewed by WIRED and collected by Reset, a nonprofit that provides grants to those tackling disinformation. It’s still in progress, and two separate groups of disinformation researchers believe the campaign is run by a notorious Russian influence operation dubbed Doppelganger that has in the past been linked to the Kremlin. New information shared exclusively with WIRED suggests the campaign has links to Russia’s GRU military spy agency.

At the beginning of November, researchers at Reset discovered what they described as a “blitz campaign” by two networks of fake Facebook pages. Over the course of a week, the researchers saw at least 560 Facebook ads that feature images of celebrities alongside pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian quotes. While some of the ads reached only thousands of users, others spread far more widely. One featuring Cristiano Ronaldo reached over 115,000 people before it was deactivated. Alongside the image of Ronaldo was the quote “It's frustrating to see how the Ukrainians use our aid. Someone needs to stop this, seriously.”

Researchers at Reset believe that the campaign “exploits loopholes in Facebook’s ad verification and content moderation systems to foster hostility against Ukrainians and undermine EU support for Kyiv.” Including fake quotes from celebrities within images makes it harder for Facebook to spot a coordinated campaign, they added. The campaign, which specifically targeted people in France and Germany, also removed any links or additional text in the ads, making it harder for Meta to track it.

Doppelganger has been actively spreading disinformation on both Facebook and X for some time. The organization was unmasked in September 2022 by EU DisinfoLab, a nonprofit working to combat disinformation against the EU, but it had been operating since at least May 2022. The group used clones of media websites, including The Guardian and Bild, to spread disinformation, filling the fake sites with articles, videos, and polls designed to push pro-Kremlin talking points about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Facebook first announced action against Doppelganger in September 2022, and said it was removing pages and accounts associated with the campaign.

In June 2023, another campaign targeting major French websites including Le Parisien, 20 Minutes, Le Monde, and Le Figaro was exposed by the French government. “French Minister supports the murder of Russian soldiers in Ukraine,” read one fake headline on a page that looked like Le Monde during that campaign.

Despite being repeatedly found out, the operators of Doppelganger have managed to continue their work: They also created fake versions of Fox News and other news websites to seed chaos and confusion during the Israel-Hamas war.

While Doppelganger campaigns in the past have been linked to the Kremlin in some media reports, new information from researchers tracking the disinformation campaign shows a link to Russia’s GRU.

A network of bot accounts on X, which in the past have been used to push Doppelganger’s fake websites, has also been used to push people to websites with direct links to Russia’s military spy agency. “Doppelganger bots promoted two sites recently, which both have strong connections to GRU,” researchers at Antibot4Navalny, a Russian anti-disinformation research group that has been closely tracking Doppelganger activity on X, tell WIRED. The researchers did not want to be identified due to security concerns.

The first site promoted by the Doppelganger bots was ObservateurContinental.fr. The Whois data, a public record of information related to the registration of a website, for this site shows that it is connected to InfoRos, a news agency previously linked to the GRU that operates hundreds of websites to push Kremlin propaganda. InfoRos was first reported to be a front organization for GRU Unit 54777 by The Washington Post in 2018. At the time, the group was said to have been active as far back as 2014 to spread disinformation about Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The second site pushed by Doppelganger bots targeted Germans. In October 2022, an investigation by the German newspaper Die Welt found that the author of content on the EuroBRICS site was being paid directly by InfoRos, which is registered as the operator of the EuroBRICs website by the German domain registrar.

Many of the same images from Doppelganger’s campaign, along with others targeting an English-speaking audience, were also shared on X by the same network of bots that have previously shared links to the Doppelganger campaigns.

“We collected a whopping 75-plus fake quotes by celebrities from the US and EU, all massively posted recently by bots of Doppelganger, the pro-Kremlin influence campaign,” one of the researchers at Antibot4Navalny tells WIRED.

The campaign on X, which coincided with the Facebook campaign, used over 10,000 bot accounts, according to the researchers. In the space of one eight-hour period, the bots posted over 27,000 messages. At one point, the bot accounts were posting 120 messages every minute.

The posts on X are identical to those posted as ads on Facebook identified by Reset, except that some of these posts were in English. The X campaign also featured mocked-up versions of celebrities’ verified Instagram accounts, making it seem as if screenshots of celebrity Instagram accounts, using similar anti-Ukraine quotes, were being shared.

X did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED about the Doppelganger campaign. Since Elon Musk took control of the platform in October 2022, he has eliminated most of the company’s trust and safety team, and disinformation has flourished on the site, especially around breaking news events like the recent Israel-Hamas war.

One of Reset’s researchers, who did not want to be identified to protect their privacy, tells WIRED that, in recent days, researchers have seen Doppelganger’s celebrity-based campaign evolve. Some ads on Facebook now, like the ones on X, feature screenshots that appear to show verified Instagram accounts of the same celebrities, adding a further layer of authenticity to the campaign. In one case, a screenshot of a fake Instagram post from the entrepreneur Richard Branson suggests that he believes America was behind the Nord Stream explosion.

The researcher also found video ads that feature real footage of celebrities with fake audio dubbed over the top, which they say have been created with text-to-speech apps. The researchers at Reset were unable to identify which app was being used to automate the creation of the videos. One example reviewed by WIRED showed footage of German filmmaker Wim Wenders speaking in English about his own films, dubbed to make it appear as if he was speaking in French about how “the Ukrainians are ruined.” The ad was posted to Facebook on November 25 and was seen by up to 3,000 people before it was removed for failing to have the “required disclaimer,” according to Facebook’s ad library.

While Facebook has taken down the majority of the pages, some of them remain active, and the campaign shows glaring gaps in Meta’s ability to deal with disinformation on this scale.

Meta declined to respond on the record to WIRED’s request for comment about the campaign and the network of fake accounts created to disseminate the false ads. In a report from August, however, Meta acknowledged that Doppelganger was the “largest and most aggressively persistent covert influence operation from Russia that we’ve seen since 2017.”

The automated creation of accounts on Facebook is a well-known problem, and Meta has deployed a variety of artificial intelligence systems to combat efforts to mass-create fake pages and accounts. By its own admission, Facebook deletes millions, and sometimes billions, of fake pages every quarter, sometimes within minutes of their creation. Meta claims that around 5 percent of its monthly average users are fake, but outside experts say that figure is substantially higher.

While the Doppelganger group ran the campaign, the fake Facebook pages it used were purchased from an agency that specializes in creating massive networks of inauthentic pages on Facebook, according to Reset. They are still investigating who created these initial networks, but the researchers say this campaign was pushed out by two separate networks they identified containing 52,000 and 25,000 pages respectively. In October, Reset published a report identifying even larger networks of inauthentic Facebook pages, including one that had over 340,000 inauthentic pages. Despite having been identified publicly, these networks are still operating today.

With a number of major elections taking place in 2024, experts are again concerned about Meta’s ability to reign in disinformation.

“Meta’s sloppy product safety is a security liability for both Europe and the US as we approach next year’s elections,” Felix Kartte, EU director at Reset claims to WIRED. “Threat actors will continue exploiting loopholes in Facebook’s advertising systems to target deceptive and inflammatory content at millions of voters in the world’s biggest democracies.”

[stardusts201]

Dead Mann’s Land

Team valkyrie:

Scout class

Name:

Jameson

Nickname:

Joker, jj, james

Age:

32

Info:

James is a very chill guy who likes to joke about anything to lighten the mood, sven when if the situations are dire, however, don’t let his charm and chill personality sway you for you may end up a fool, he is well tought to be a liar and a backstabber himself. He had a weakness but only a few know tjis, its his eyes for his eyes cant hide his emotions so he always wears sunglasses to hide his true emotions.

Favorite quote:

“No one susspects the nice Guy.”

Cause of death:

- Unknown -(part two only)

… Can you see it, his friend is back……. He wants revenge……

. . . ❄︎❒︎♋︎♓︎⧫︎□︎❒︎…

[oh-saints]

as a fellow ruben girlie here, i'm so happy for the anon! imagine seeing ruben's ass live 👀 BUT HERE ME OUT BESTIE can you please make something out of her (incoming) experience? pretty please? 🥹

you. did. not?!?! BCS YOU WON'T BELIEVE HOW FAST I MADE THIS i really need to stick with closing the request box bcs i've been getting so many 😭

signs

you hold up a sign that caught rúben’s attention… and he takes it in his liberty as a sign from the universe.

rúben dias x you

word count: 1.2k (short one because this is sort of a comeback/warm-up piece lol)

tw: brief mention of alcohol

note: this is inspired on this fellow ruben girlie’s incoming experience but let’s just think of this as manifesting *good things* from front row, yeah? as usual, i happen to write during work so this is ofc not beta-read. feedbacks are also welcome! i'm so torn on whether or not to be writing a follow-up to this tho><

your girlies’ idea of bachelorette party was, for the lack of words, non-traditional.

instead of penis-shaped cake and lipstick scribbles across the face or a heavily-drunken trip to and from the strip club, you were flying to Portugal to catch the male national team on action. per the soon-to-be-bride’s words, it was her last chance to fawn over handsome men she never gets the chance to have before settling with the reality that her fiancé is nowhere near the delicious set of men with stubbles and godly bodies.

in reality, you have to agree with the sentiment. there’s no way an ordinary girl like you, no matter how much you try to dream waking up beside rúben dias, is going to end up with a someone that shares one room with Cristiano Ronaldo in the camp. best choice you can have is probably the goalkeeper from your office’s football club.

so who are you to reject the offer of the front row access to see those muscular thighs up close and personal?

however, what your friends didn’t tell you about was the fact that the embarrassing element was going to still be present. it just wasn’t in the form of the lap dance you were getting from the strippers or the walk-of-shame you had to do when you walk out of a club pretty smashed.

it came in the form of the sign boards the upcoming bride had especially prepared for this very day.

everyone was designated for a sign board with different words respectively. it wasn’t provoking enough but the blurred lines were pretty obvious to imply you and your peer group were sexually frustrated in front of these hot guys. quoting the matron of the event, “there’s nothing wrong in trying to get their attention.”

but you’d like to think that wobbly walks you had to endure from the taxi to your flat on the 3rd floor would be much better than holding up the sign in your hands now. well, anything is better than waving “Marry me, Dias! I got the energy of a stallion!” placard from the side lines, to be honest.

you swore under your breath that if the bride wasn’t your best friend from the university days—who was truly having the time of her life, by the way, with the way she was screaming cancelo’s name like tomorrow’s ending—you’d ditch this event immediately. no matter how much you initially wanted the exquisite view of these stunning guys running and drenched in sweat sexily for 90 minutes.

“here, drink this.”

and you didn’t think twice before downing the bitter liquid from the flask another friend of yours managed to sneak in. how she did it—you didn’t want to know, but you got to admit there was a reason why she was the valedictorian. you needed the instant adrenaline injected to your bloodstream because there was no way in hell you were going to lift up the mortifying stack of words sober.

the alcohol effected the way you took on your surroundings, obviously. albeit you were still not as loose as the others, you came to accept your defeat when you started screaming for rúben, too, in the way the future bride was screaming for cancelo and the valedictorian for felix.

people around you were definitely throwing you and your girls various looks. some were disgusted at the dirty words indicating the bride’s dirtiest fantasies on cancelo—which you admitted went a bit too far sometimes—some were also laughing whenever she casted a curse on the opponents tackling the right winger. some others shook their heads in confusion because why the fuck was there a group of thirsty women in a very manly event?

but you could care less. your friends were having the best moments in their lives and you were not going to be a bitch about it. you were not going to even acknowledge the second-hand embarrassment you were internally having because of your friend’s peculiar antics, which had intensified as they ran out of liquid contents from the shared silver flask belonging to the valedictorian.

the rest of the girls—not you, who’d taken in a considerable amount of alcohol compared to others and could now be considered their sober friend—reached their peak when the whistle blew on the final minutes. the winning atmosphere kind of encouraged those crazy ladies to jump in their seats with their assigned sign boards. you even had to stop another friend of yours from flashing her boobs in public because dealing with police in a foreign country was the last thing in your bucket list.

you pleaded them to come down from their seats, as well. in your defence, they could fall off the seat flat on their faces and a swollen bride and her entourage were definitely not welcomed on the wedding day. but they didn’t give a shit about it and laughed at your face for not soaking up the moment as good as they were.

you turned away from the crazy bunch by facepalming your face, the tip of your thumb was massaging the space between your eyebrows. you thought it was working to ease off the headache, for suddenly the girls went silent in the background.

but you realised it wasn’t the case at all when you heard a familiar voice that you used to listen on several man of the match interview.

“hey, kid,” and you had to look up to make sure your head wasn’t playing tricks on you. “here’s for you.”

rúben was actually standing behind the barricade placed between the field and the audience seats. his hand was stretched to give the shirt he’d worn today to the little kid beside you, who’d been flailing his own sign board of can I have your shirt? throughout the match. the kid jumped at the opportunity, his father behind him thanking the football player for his generosity, and you were blinded by the smile etched on his face as wide as the Mississippi river.

you didn’t bother to blame your humiliating friends for shutting up anymore because you were as stunned as they were.

“and you, my lady,”

you turned your head to spot the person behind you, the one the defender was pointing at, so ready to congratulate whoever the lucky woman was for being able to entice the rúben dias’ attention. but you were met with bunch of men instead, shouting parabens, rúben!

so you twisted your body again, this time towards the towering number 3, with a rather perplexed expression because his line of sight hadn’t moved an inch from where you stood. your nearest friend was one or two feet away from you, and noticing how flustered you were in figuring out his call was meant for you, rúben let out a small laugh but enough to make your entire body trembled with overwhelming warmth.

“yes, you, the one who wears joao cancelo’s name on the back,” and that could be your entire team, for it was the bride’s request to wear her favourite player’s number. “I think you’d suit my last name better, no? your sign says you ask for it anyway.”

every power evaporated from your legs right away.

[swaggypsyduck]

Opinions?

my non-footy friend loves reading fanfics for other fandoms. and after nearly completing the hockey rpf tag (she's never played or watched hockey) she moved onto the football rpf (she's only ever watched the morocco vs france wc22 match). after filtering the usual tags out she's given me a list and i've been ordered to share it w yall and to get ur opinions on this. she has ordered them by which pairings she feels have the best written fics to numbers ratio sice she has no idea who these ppl r and ships none of them.

DISCLAIMER: SHE DOES NOT KNOW ANY PERSONAL INFO ABOUT THESE PLAYERS OR THE CONTROVERSIES THEY HAVE

her list is as follows:

1. Sergio Ramos/Fernando Torres

2. Sergio Ramos/Iker Casillas

3. Neymar/Lionel Messi

4. Xabi Alonso/Steven Gerrard

5. Sergio Ramos/Gerard Pique

6. Marco Reus/Mario Götze

7. Cristiano Ronaldo/Lionel Messi

8. Thomas Müller/Manuel Neuer

9. Lukas Podolski/Bastian Schweinsteiger

10. Dele Alli/Eric Dier

her thoughts on this: (tw/soccer)

dont mind the time stamps she's not muslim she just cant sleep. she also demands recs for players 20+ bc and i quote "can only take looking up geriatric pics for so long"

[cleolinda]

Honey in perfume, feat. Bee (Zoologist, 2019)

(Picture from the Zoologist website, obviously, and not my magical cottagecore abode)

I am a big fan of (wearing very small amounts of) sweet gourmand fragrances, including sugar and honey notes. “Notes,” of course—nowadays, it’s not the real thing. While I have seen at least one or two indie companies touting actual honey in their honey perfumes, for the most part, it's an aromachemical: phenylacetic acid, derived from beeswax and generally combined with other notes to create an accord. This Fragrantica article tells you everything you could ever want to know about the chemistry of honey perfumes, including:

"Honey absolute" is generally beeswax absolute (technically not even an absolute), which has "a relatively mild scent, reminiscent of hay and tonka beans with waxy and honey undertones."

"Phenylacetic acid itself, in high concentrations, has a sickeningly sweet smell, really reminiscent of honey, with sour, powdery and floral nuances. In its composition, the nuances of tobacco and chocolate are clearly distinguishable – one, without imagination, can also describe them as a strong animalistic urinal smell, vaguely reminiscent of civet."

If you saw barrels with a bee symbol in Breaking Bad: that's the stuff. It is, in fact, used to make meth.

Other notes/aromachemicals used in various honey bases (abridged): vanillin, heliotropin, coumarin (often tonka bean), violet (ionones), hyacinth (phenylacetaldehyde), rose and wax (geranyl acetate), and a note only found in citrus blossom honey: methyl anthranilate.

In the "mellis" base: "benzyl salicylate (balsamic, herbaceous) and eugenol (cloves), [...] patchouli, hydroxycitronellal (lily of the valley), woody notes, spices, and coumarin." This is a foundation used in many of the classic older fragrances like Youth Dew (which my grandmother used to wear), Opium, and L'Air du Temps.

If you're interested in the chemistry, take a look at the article—the parts I'm quoting are only to get across the palette of scent possible in a honey fragrance. Guerlain creative director Sylvaine Delacourte also reels off an exhaustive list of honey notes in perfumery. I'll quote four of them:

Miel de Provence (Firmenich base): "tobacco, aniseed, honey, curry, immortelle, coumarin, hay"

Beeswax Absolute: "quite buttery, very honey-like, broom-like"

Phenyl acetic acid: "honeyed, fruity, dirty, a little blackcurrant"

Tabac Turc Absolut: "honey, animal, leather"

Dance break for further reading:

Fragrantica: Beeswax in Perfumes

Perfume Society: "We love what the nose Christine Nagel has to say about this ingredient: 'Honey has two facets – half devil, half angel. In Ambrée structures, it has a sweet, comforting effect, taking you back to childhood. But a small touch in a feminine structure can be extremely sexy…'"

Bois de Jasmin: Sweet Honey Water: Perfume Recipe from the 17th Century

Also at Fragrantica: Best in Show: Honey Fragrances (2020). Now, if I had a money tree, I would probably go straight for samples of Back to Black (Kilian), Scandal (Jean Paul Gaultier), Poison (Dior), Chergui and Miel de Bois (Serge Lutens), L'Instant de Guerlain, and Honey and the Moon (TokyoMilk). The sample I actually ordered was what I felt must be The Honey Scent of All Time:

Bee (Zoologist, 2019)

I had actually never tried a Zoologist fragrance before this; they're famous for animal-themed scents that range from the imaginative to the, uh, challenging. (And the infamous.) Here's the official description:

Like the frantic hustle of the bee through a maze of multi-faceted scents, Zoologist Bee delivers a surreal experience. The rich aroma of honey captivates, while alluring florals, royal jelly, animalic beeswax and regal incense unite to create a buzz, offering excitement, and the sweet rewards of life.

Perfumer: Cristiano Canali Top Notes: Orange, Ginger Syrup, Royal Jelly Accord Heart Notes: Broom, Heliotrope, Mimosa, Orange Flower Base Notes: Benzoin, Labdanum, Musks [synthetic], Sandalwood, Tonka, Vanilla

Now, glance back up at all the background business we just went through: heliotropin, coumarin (tonka), citrus that could include methyl anthranilate. Sylvaine Delacourte invokes mimosa and broom in her full list of notes—

But then: royal jelly apparently has a cheesy, condensed milk scent; she also mentions that beeswax absolute can read as "buttery." For that matter, her mention of a "butyric" honey aromachemical is a bit alarming: it's the "rancid butter, parmesan cheese, and vomit" note that makes Hershey's chocolate so objectionable to people who didn't grow up with it. Like, it's all here if you google know what you're looking at. It's all fun and games until the bee cheese comes out.

And then, labdanum, as you might remember, is the key ingredient in amber accords, where it's often blended with benzoin and vanilla, so we're going to get a warm, resinous, highly projective effect as well. I love amber, but I have to apply it exceptionally sparingly: it's LOUD.

What I'm getting at is, once you look more closely at the notes and the chemistry: I am not surprised that some wearers report a claustrophobic feeling like their head is stuck in a beehive. If your skin chemistry emphasizes the floral notes, it's said that you'll feel like you're right there soaring with the bees among the wildflowers; if you amp the cheesy, waxy, or A M B E R notes, well. There's nothing I can do to save you now. Remember Tabac Turc Absolut ("honey, animal, leather") up there? Or that phenylacetic resemblance to civet? Zoologist is famous for (surprise!) their intensely animalic fragrances. We don’t know exactly what Cristiano Canali used, but we sure do know what’s possible. You are IN that hive with the bees. Hope you brought some pollen as a hostess gift.

I always apply, like, three entire molecules of perfume when I first try something, so I was fine. On me, Bee has a creamy-yet-powdery "texture"—not dairy, not "old lady" powder; something almost tactile. The honey itself is primarily what I smell, and it’s "high" in my nose; I think I would have preferred a deeper note, like the dark clover honey I use in my tea, but it's nice. I don't specifically smell any ginger or florals—maybe a little citrus. Nothing cheesy or objectionable, barely waxy, just a general sense of hive. But Bee does seem—alive. It seems to move in the air around my wrist.

And it persists for hours, despite how little I wore (three different occasions), especially since my skin does amplify amber notes. If you find yourself in trouble, it is not going to wash off. DO NOT SPRAY BEE ALL OVER YOURSELF. DO NOT. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR CHOICES. I really enjoy honey fragrances and this one in particular, but—you have been warned.

Addendum: It was extra fun to edit this out on the deck under a cherry laurel with about 7-8 bumblebees circling overhead. They were chill.

[dunaartgallery]

This artwork featuring Cristiano Ronaldo captures the spirit of one of his most iconic quotes: "If you don't believe you are the best, you will never achieve all that you are capable of." A striking illustration of Ronaldo in action brings his energy and determination to life, set against a vibrant backdrop. This motivational piece is perfect for any football fan or anyone who draws inspiration from Ronaldo's drive to succeed. Whether for your living space, gym, or office, this print serves as a daily reminder to push your limits and believe in your own potential. Inspiring and motivating quotes, famous sayings, and poems that you can use to decorate your home, workplace, or office. Visit our store at: https://dunaartgallery.etsy.com Choose from our best motivational quotes and poems. Find unique wall art from our selection for your home! If you want to be informed about our latest works, follow us! Let's protect our planet together—thanks to digital downloads, we can significantly reduce the emissions associated with transportation! THANKS FOR WATCHING AND FOR SHARING ! 😊 #minimalisthome #minimalistwallart #homedecor #homedecoration #poem #poems #wallpaper #walldecor #inspiringwallart #inspirationart #inspirationquotes #vintage #vintagestyle #football #portugal #greatpeople #cristianoronaldo #ronaldoquotes #ronaldo #cr7 #lovequotes #minimalisthome #etsy #etsyshop

[papagaiostudio]

What Do Iconic Soccer Celebrations Mean?

The Stories Behind Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, and Mbappé’s Famous Goal Poses

If you’ve ever watched a soccer match featuring Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr., or Kylian Mbappé, you’ve probably noticed their distinctive celebrations after scoring a goal. But have you ever wondered what these iconic poses mean? Are they just random expressions of joy, or is there a deeper meaning behind each celebration? Let’s delve into the stories behind these famous goal celebrations and discover what makes each one so special.

1. Lionel Messi: Pointing to the Sky

When Lionel Messi scores a goal, he often looks up and points both fingers to the sky. This seemingly simple gesture is, in fact, a profound tribute to someone who was immensely important in his life—his grandmother, Celia. Messi’s grandmother was a significant influence on his early footballing journey.

She used to take him to training sessions and games, nurturing his passion for the sport from a young age. Unfortunately, she passed away before she could see him become one of the greatest players in the world. By pointing to the sky, Messi dedicates each of his goals to her, a heartfelt thank you and a moment of remembrance that transcends the game.

2. Cristiano Ronaldo: Touching His Heart

Cristiano Ronaldo is known for his wide range of celebrations, each packed with intensity and emotion. One of his more subtle and heartfelt gestures is touching his heart or chest after scoring. This celebration is often an expression of gratitude—whether to his fans, his teammates, or even a higher power.

Ronaldo’s celebrations are always dramatic, designed to showcase his pride, passion, and connection to the moment. Another famous Ronaldo celebration is his “Siii” jump and spin, accompanied by a powerful shout. This has become a global phenomenon, symbolizing confidence, strength, and pure joy.

3. Kylian Mbappé: Sliding with Arms Crossed

Kylian Mbappé’s goal celebration of sliding on his knees with his arms crossed over his chest has become one of the most recognized moves in modern soccer. But did you know this pose has a personal story? Mbappé’s celebration is inspired by his younger brother, who would strike the pose while playing FIFA on the console.

The celebration became a way for Mbappé to connect with his family and show a touch of humility. Despite his rapid rise to stardom, the pose reminds him to stay grounded and have fun with the game. It’s an expression of youthful confidence and a reminder that soccer, at its core, is a game meant to be enjoyed.

4. Neymar Jr.: Playful Hand Gestures

Neymar Jr. is known for his dynamic and often theatrical celebrations, which frequently involve playful hand gestures and dances. One of his trademark celebrations involves placing his hands near his face, creating a light-hearted, cheeky expression.

Neymar’s celebrations often reflect his fun-loving personality and his Brazilian roots, where dance and joy are integral to soccer culture. These gestures can also be a nod to friends, family, or fans, making every celebration a unique shoutout to someone special in his life. For Neymar, it’s about bringing his off-field charisma to the pitch, making every goal a memorable moment of entertainment.

Bringing the Celebrations Home: Iconic Posters for Soccer Fans

If you’re a fan of these incredible players and their unforgettable goal celebrations, why not bring a piece of that passion and inspiration into your own space? Our Iconic Soccer Players Inspirational Quotes Posters capture the essence of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, and Mbappé in their most iconic poses. Each poster is not just a work of art but a story of dedication, emotion, and triumph.

Whether you’re a die-hard soccer fan or just appreciate the art of celebration, these posters serve as daily reminders of what it means to dream big, work hard, and celebrate every success—just like your favorite players do on the field.

Get Your Piece of Soccer History Today!

Explore our collection and find the perfect poster that resonates with your love for the game. Celebrate the legends of soccer in style and let their iconic moments inspire you every day. After all, these are not just posters; they are a tribute to greatness.

[caixxa]

Writing tag game

Thank you so much dear @arsi-lehkonen for tagging me! I'll try answer this without being too affected by your answers because they were fucking brilliant and we feel and think so much alike about writing, it's unbelievable.

what is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

I'm bad at absolute superlatives so I'll name 3.

Cristiano Ronaldo as a catholic priest in a rural Welsh village after WWII, with James as an angel and so many side characters and cameos. I learned so much with this AU!

Creating a porn industry AU where I could play with my favorite characters as if they were naked barbie dolls.

The idea that I can and should write Finnish players in Finnish.

(All these became actual fics: 1, 2, 3)

what is your favorite part of being a writer? which parts could you take or leave?

My favorite part is the pure magic of creation. This thing exists only in my head until I flesh it out with words, and the words that I choose and the order I put them in is the only way to bring it to reality and share it with other people, and the extra sugar and spice on it are their reactions.

I could do without having to write in English, but to reach whole audience that I think would enjoy my work, I have to. It's not my native language, and I don't use it in my daily life, and it creates such an extra effort to be able to really express myself the way I want to, and a layer of uncertainty about the result. If I want to diminish the uncertainty, I'll have to go the extra mile of bringing in a native beta, and that's an extra delay in the process of getting the work posted (and it can be nerve racking too, I've asked my betas to be gentle with me but it's still terrifying to show anybody my imperfections).

I'd love to be able to write casually and fast but solidly and well, and when I'm not, I'll rather step away from writing until I figure out if I want to do it again.

what is your greatest motivation to write/create?

My greatest motivation to write in general is monthly salary. My greatest motivation to write fan fiction has been passionate fan love for the subject matter of my fic. Writing is my way of dwelling around in the world of hockey fandom and screaming about how wonderful and sexy in all aspects the characters are.

"Fan fiction is a love letter to the fandom" is a great way to put it, and it also explains why I don't write that much anymore. When do we write love letters? When we're freshly fallen in love, the feeling is new and all-encompassing and makes you vibrate out of your skin. It's obsessive, a little similarly as when some people find religion, think new born christians who can't stop talking about how everything would be better for everyone if they accepted jesus in their hearts.

With time, this new obsessive kind of love dials down to a more mature love, it's still a grounding, lovely fiber in the tapestry of your life and emotional setup; the flames have settled to keep you warm, not consume and scorch everything in and around you. The urgent need to constantly pour your love into love letters has faded down at that point.

I think I'm at that point.

what is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? link it if you’d like and can!

It varies so much! I'll have to say three again.

Right now I thought I'll go with the crowd and mention my porn AU camera ready because it was such a huge work to write to completion, it's 89 K in 43 chapters.

But the dearest to my heart is my second ever hockey rpf story and truly a love letter to my favorite Finnish hockey boys and Finnish summer, and my first bilingual work Jussi at Jussi's / Jussi Jussilla.

As a story, however, I'll have to say Father Cristiano's Redemption for the richness of the world building, ensemble cast and plot.

what is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

Each and every kiss feels like a lingering mark on his skin, burning like droplets of hot wax from the candles he used to carry as an altar boy in the church, his second home.

(Father Cristiano’s Redemption)

which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? why do you say so and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

I don't know if there's anything controversial in being a shitty human being but if there is, maybe Sepe pursuing and banging older married family men with no qualms / those older married family men cheating on their spouses with him in the King and Prince of Carolina series is a tie in low morals. I don't endorse hurting people this way in real life.

if you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

"I have how many children?"

--

If you feel like doing this, consider yourself tagged, I'd love to read everybody's answers! @behoright @thosedaysthatwill @violasmirabiles @isconnormcdavidok you came to mind, and! Edit, @la-cruz-del-sur .

[all-about-cr7]

Translation of Cristiano’s statement:

Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career. Fortunately, I won many titles of international dimension, including for Portugal, but putting the name of our country on the highest level in the world was my biggest dream. I fought for this. I fought hard for this dream.

In the 5 presences that I scored in World Cups over 16 years, always alongside great players and supported by millions of Portuguese people, I gave my all. I left everything on the pitch.

I never turned my face away from the fight and I never gave up on that dream. Unfortunately, yesterday the dream ended. It is not worth reacting hot-headed.

I just want everyone to know that much has been said, much has been written, much has been speculated, but my dedication to Portugal has not changed for an instant. I was always one more person fighting for everyone's objective, and I would never turn my back on my teammates and my country.

For now, there's not much more to say. Thank you, Portugal. Thank you, Qatar. The dream was beautiful while it lasted... Now, let’s hope that time will be a good advisor, allowing everyone to draw their own conclusions. 🙏🏽❤️🇵🇹 

Some selected supportive comments - there were lots more:

💖Always with you 💖

[corpuscristiano]

WAIT IS THAT...CRISTIANO? i forgot about that guy.

FULL NAME: Cristiano Martin Van Allen NICKNAMES: Cris, Van Allen AGE + DATE OF BIRTH: Twenty /// April 5th, 1965 ( i think???) JOB: Bartender @ The Pit MAJOR: Art Education

TRAITS: Worldly, Smart-Mouthed, Family-Oriented, Hypercritical, Confident, Flirtatious, Loud, Obtuse, Overdramatic INSPO: Katie Morosky (The Way We Were), Lito (Sense8), Odd Della Robia (Code Lyoko), Elliot (Euphoria)

SILLY LITTLE BIO FOR A SILLY LITTLE BOY🎊

Cristiano is by no means an outcast. He's been in the gang's orbit since before he could remember. But even so...Cris likes to think of himself as a lone wolf. A jaded artist staring down life's barrel with a smug grin.

Cristiano is by no means an outcast. He's been in the gang's orbit since before he could remember. But even so...Cris likes to think of himself as a lone wolf. A jaded artist staring down life's barrel with a smug grin.

This is mostly an act. Cris is a nerd first and foremost, and a budding community leader in his own right. He's read books by every activist known to man. He spends his free time in front of canvases and hodgepodge statues. He's the kinda guy who reminds all his friends about their Miranda rights...repeatedly.

His obsession with bridging art and activism started pretty young. It's kinda inevitable when your mom runs a boundary-pushing bookstore. Twigs was known as a cheap place to get used college textbooks and get psychic readings by the one and only Astrid Van Allen. He was a consumer first and foremost. An inquisitor. Yeah, that sounds right. Astrid Van Allen was more than happy to provide her son with the resources and the answers. She was gonna do this single mom thing right.

Maybe subconsciously, Cristiano wanted to be worldly for her. He saw the other kids in Cherry. Most of them had dads...and if they didn't there was an explanation. Astrid shut down any conversation revolving Cristiano's father...often in a tone that Cris could only define as "nice-nasty". When Cris won an art competition or got straight A's, those pesterings were replaced with backhanded compliments.

"He is shockingly well-behaved!"

"Do you think he gets that art stuff it from his dad?"

His love for him mom and for intersectional feminism (Thanks Maya Angelou!) made him very bitter about comments like these. Really...as he got older, the olden day mindsets in Cherry began to make him more and more angry. Cris started to vocalize this bitterness in school. Vandalizing bathroom stalls with Malcom X quotes. Interrupting teacher's lessons with counter-points and anecdotes about injustice.

Needless to say, this behavior landed Cristiano in detention quite often. The inevitability of the smart-mouthed activist constantly finding himself in trouble with "the establishment" fueled his artistic fire. By high school he was pretty well known by his loud mouth and louder art pieces. But things started to get weird in around that time. Well weirder than being raised by a woman who claimed to see spirits and auras. He and his friends were suddenly privy to stabbings, masked figures, drama queens, & cheating scandals. All great inspiration for Cris's artistic endeavors...but ironically deeply distracting for a kid just trying to get into fucking art school and flee Cherry with his mom in tow.

Graduation didn't help calm things down. Right before Cristiano could start classes at CCU (a very sizeable downgrade from his dream pick of UCLA), the news struck. The Van Allens could no longer afford to run Twigs. Maybe it was a drop in sales...maybe it was a mismanagement of money (Astrid was never the most responsible when it came to that kind of thing), but what was done was done.

Those times were a haze for Cris. His second home had seemingly gone up in smoke. He suddenly felt a responsibility to show up for his friends as they got pulled tighter and tighter into the mystery of the LDB. He became a ball of stress to put it lightly. And even as things began to resolve (If you could call Lux Lewis revealing to be a domestic terrorist and hightailing it outta there a resolution)…Cris felt like a changed kid. No…a changed man! He’s shaved his head, garnered a few stick & poke tattoos, and unfortunately…sold half of his art portfolio. He is the breadwinner of the Van Allen household nowadays after all.

These days Cris is a survivor first, artist/activist second. He spends his evenings slinging drinks and pretending to be a Russell brother at The Pit. He spends his days perusing his Art Education degree. If he's stuck in Cherry for the rest of his life, he might as well spend it empowering the young minds that inhabit it. Occasionally you might find him at the boardwalk selling caricatures and groaning about the imminent gentrification of Cherry. He's a good time! I swear!

[epuiseeparmedia]

Stovall again filed under seal so I can’t read what he wrote. Judging by the supplemental documents he had, I wager the arguments are about:

- German and Portuguese courts didn’t stop the publication of football leaks except thus Cristiano had no right to them (wrong)

- the district court didn’t want to immisce itself in the lvmp files drama thus Cristiano had no right to them. Wrong again

I don’t get the unwillingness to argue without quoting the documents. I will have to see if Ronaldo’s lawyers already answered this line of arguments but in fine it will be brought in the oral arguments of October.

[harrison-abbott]

Cristiano & Lionel

I wanted to write a lil thing about a ‘debate’ which I’ve always found bizarre:

Who is better: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi?

This discussion has baffled me for fifteen years or so, and I find it odd to understand why so many people compare these two soccer athletes. So I thought I’d offer my opinion on it.

Who is the most attractive supermodel on the planet? Bianca Balti or Kate Bock … Hmm. How would you rate something like physical attractiveness? Is this possible? Because isn’t such a thing [finding a person physically pretty] based on subjective interest? You could compare Balti and Bock with, perhaps, the amount of money they earn and the amount of fashion shows they’ve achieved, or similar things. But why would that even matter?

People endlessly compare Cristiano and Lionel objectively. As to how many goals they have, and trophies won. Football icons are powerful people. Because soccer as a sport is the most popular on the planet; because they are famous, wealthy and successful: and lots of the eight billion folks on the globe covet such attributes.

At the same time: many people have zilch interest in soccer. Doesn’t intrigue them; they couldn’t care less. Instead they’re interested in pop stars or movie actors.

So which actor is the ‘best’? Or who is the greatest band in pop history?

Well – if you were to look at the music example objectively, it’d hands-down be The Beatles. But many, many folks say they despise the Beatles: can’t stand them. If you were to judge who is the finest writer it’d be William Shakespeare.

To know Bill Shakespeare personally, you would have to invent a time machine and travel back 400 years and go speak to him in a grimy part of London, where the entire population of the city drank from the same river that they used to dump their sewage in. Bill would not be able to understand what you were saying. Because Old English had a totally different accent to how English is verbally used today. This man would also be about five foot tall.

Furthermore, Shakespeare was deeply unhappy, and you can see this in his sonnets; which is the only autobiographical information we have of him. He was just as vulnerable as any of us are, and had a personal life in tatters. But in the modern age we know almost nothing about a man who changed the English language, and whose quotes and quips we still use in everyday talk, perhaps without realising it. [Football pundits love to use the phrase ‘comedy of errors’ when the defenders get all clumsy in the lead-up to conceding a goal.]

Cristiano Ronaldo was a man who built, paid for and directed a museum for himself. I.e., he made a building/museum and funded it personally, to prove how great he is. Does this sound like a man who feels secure with his own ego? 

If you were to go back to the history of the Premier League, and ask fellow footballers/managers who they thought was the best player. Paul Scholes was regularly the number one. Thierry Henry, Zidane and Vieira all said that he was the top player. And they were part of that French clique which won the World Cup, Euros – alongside the famous Arsenal side that were victors in all kinds of ways too.

Paul Scholes wasn’t a star in the glitzy sense of the word. Not goodlooking like David Beckham was; hated that sense of celebrity. But Ferguson [the most successful football manager ever] said he was the best midfielder of his tenure.

My whole point is that there are many contradictions and ironies within fields like sport or artistic achievement, and many clashing opinions which don’t seem to make sense if you look at them in an alternative way.

Do you know the Andrei Tarkovsky films? I looked at a list of fan-voted TOP 100 movies ever, from magazines like Empire and Total Film, and the internet movie site IMDb. Not a single Tarkovsky movie features in any of these lists. Thus we can assume that they are not popular in a mass sense?

There was another poll conducted by the BFI whereby they asked 400 of the top directors internationally what their favourite films were. Two of Tarkovsky’s movies made their top 10. Indicating that Tarkovsky is perhaps a ‘filmmakers’ filmmaker’: in much of the same way that Scholes was a footballers’ footballer.

When people say things like ‘Ronaldo is better than Messi’, is it not the individual who is making a fallacy? By saying person X is superior to person Y, this is essentially negative and minimalistic. The comment is supposed to be provocative and offensive, in order to undermine the abilities of an athlete which the commentator does not have. And most of it is subconscious.

There is no ‘best’ sports athlete. Even if you analyse it objectively, it’s not quite possible to label one man or woman who is the greatest ever. It’s just that people like that idea – of being the most superb, the ultimate gladiator, whatever you wish to call it.

Those who have a larger sense of knowledge in a particular field tend to answer differently to people who have a smaller knack of information. And knowledge is the key to harnessing a threatened ego. They will be less fearful of famous people because they are wiser, and such comparisons between figures are made trivial. In short: they won’t be as judgemental.

When a mind has a spanning resource of information it tends to not think between subjectivity and objectivity as black & white slates; rather looks beyond both of them and focuses on further intellect, because that is boundless and unlimited.

Please can we stop comparing Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi? It’s so tiring, and people have missed the point for such a long time.

Fallacies like status get lost in history and individuals with ‘greatness’ are only as scared as the rest of us. Of course it’s hard to be less afraid of other people. But with learning we can grow a bit, expand, and keep on being informed, rather than judging others.

[hindiwebquotes]

Best 51 Motivational Football Quotes to Fire Up Your Passion for the Game

Motivational Football Quotes About Life :

Looking for a boost of inspiration and motivation for your football journey? Look no further than these top 51 Soccer Inspirational football quotes from some of the sport’s most iconic figures. From legends like Pele and Bill Shankly to coaches like Vince Lombardi and Lou Holtz, these quotes will remind you of the hard work, dedication, and passion that it takes to succeed in football and in life.

Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, these quotes will remind you of the dedication, perseverance, and love of the game required to achieve success on the pitch. Get fired up and ready to take on any challenge with these inspiring words from the legends of football.

Top Motivational Football Quotes by Players

“Football is not just about scoring goals, it’s about winning together and achieving greatness as a team.” – Cristiano Ronaldo

“Football is not just a game, it’s an opportunity to inspire and motivate others.” – Pelé

“I never left the field saying I could have done more to get ready and that gives me piece of mind.” – Peyton Manning

“Football is not about being the best, it’s about being better than you were yesterday.” – Lionel Messi

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