The commander of the Madeira Maritime Police, Guerreiro Cardoso, has confirmed that he will investigate a video showing Cristiano Ronaldo’s 10-year-old son riding a jet ski alone and unsupervised, while on holiday in Madeira.
Over the weekend, Ronaldo’s sister Elma Aveiro, published a video on her official page on a social network showing young Cristianinho riding a jet ski in Paul do Mar.
The boys actions were filmed from inside a yacht alongside a group of adults and children who can be heard egging the young boy on. A woman’s voice is heard to say “Give him Cristiano. Make a top there, do it! Give it, give it, give it, give it. Give it gas.”
Cristianinho who doesn’t understand what a ‘top’ is, is heard to ask: “What is a top?”.
Someone explains that it is a circular movement in the water and the child executes the request, much to the approval of the woman who challenged him.
“You have sense, son.” is said by an older female voice.
The video, which lasts 1m38s, ends with a girl jumping into the water to join Cristianinho. It does not show, however, whether the second child gets on the jetski or not.
At the time the original article went to press the video had already been seen by 24 thousand people and had links to Visitmadeira, Dolores Aveiro and Cristiano Ronaldo himself. However, the controversy comes from the fact that Cristianinho is not legally old enough to ride a jet ski alone.
The case came to the Maritime Police attention through a complaint, which questioned whether there was any infraction under Portuguese law. While talking to local journalists, Commander Guerreiro Cardoso confirmed that he “intends to find out” what happened and that without speaking about specific cases, jet ski’s, cannot be operated by children, and that the law states that you have to be over 18-years of age and have a maritime licence.
Samantha Gannon
info at madeira-weekly.com
