Video: Did Cristiano Ronaldo get golden motorcycle as gift from Saudi Ruler?

A clip has been shared multiple times on social media with a claim that says it is a golden motorcycle given to Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo by the ruler of Saudi Arabia.

"Motorcycle made of 22-karat gold, gifted to CR7 (Cristiano Ronaldo) by the ruler of Saudi Arabia,” reads the caption of a Facebook post published on May 10, 2023.

A 27-second TikTok clip published with the post shows a golden motorcycle parked in a hall with a Saudi Arabian flag in the background. The claim also appeared elsewhere on Facebook.

Here's the video:

Ronaldo signed for Saudi-based football club Al Nassr in December 2022, making his official debut for the club in January 2023.

But the claim that the golden motorcycle was gifted to Ronaldo — by Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia — is false.

The bike is owned by a Saudi motorcycle enthusiast and was not presented to Ronaldo as a gift.

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Competition winner

Using the InVIDWeVerify tool to run reverse image searches on frames from the video, AFP Fact Check found pictures of the same bike on an Instagram account (archived here) called “Faisal Abu Sara”.

The description on the Instagram account reads “The Storm Bike” which matches the inscription on a badge found behind the bike’s seat in the video.

The account has various videos of golden motorcycles including pictures from bike shows. Two of the videos posted on the account in 2018 and 2020 match the video in the claim.

Further searches using keywords such as “Faisal Abu Sara motorcycle” and “Golden motorcycle in Saudi Arabia” led to Facebook accounts here and here with more videos of the motorbike. The posts credit Abu Sara as the owner.

Also, in another video published in 2018, Abu Sara introduced himself, talked about the process of building the bike and about the competitions he participated in.

“I’m from Saudi Arabia, we came here for a motorcycle competition. I built this bike, this kind of Hayabusa Suzuki, we built it ourselves. It is all coated with gold, 24 carats (...), all customised and handmade. We have already won many trophies, I have achieved many things, such as first place,” he said.

The AFP digital verification team contacted Abu Sara for more details. On May 22, 2023, he replied on Instagram, saying he has had the bike for eight years and it does not belong to Ronaldo.

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