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No, Cristiano Ronaldo has not converted to Islam

Fact check analysis of images - showing football legend Cristiano Ronaldo in ihram and praying at Makkah Grand Mosque that are viral with claim that he has converted to Islam, are AI generated, and thus the claim is false

Tuesday December 24, 2024 12:13 PM, Fact Check by NewsMeter

Fact Check: No, Cristiano Ronaldo has not converted to Islam

Fact check analysis of images - showing football legend Cristiano Ronaldo in ihram and praying at Makkah Grand Mosque that are viral with claim that he has converted to Islam, are AI generated, and thus the claim is false.

Claim

Images show Cristiano Ronaldo and his long-time partner Georgina Rodriguez in Ihram and offering prayers inside Masjid Haram in Makkah after the couple converted to Islam

Fact

The viral images are AI generated, and thus the claim that footballer Ronaldo and his partner have embraced to Islam is false.

Viral Image and Claim

An X user who identifies himself as Adv.Nazneen Akhtar shared the image and wrote:

"Mashallah: The world's most famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo adopted Islam and offered prayer with his wife in Haram Sharif...!"

The same image with the like claim has also been shared by other social media users also.

Fact Check

The fact check analysis of the viral image by NewsMeter found that the claim is false, as the image is AI generated.

The way Ronaldo is seen in the image praying also raises suspicion. Muslims pray facing Holy Kaaba, and this is the practice followed by Muslims around the world. However, in the viral image, the couple is praying in opposite direction, with their back, and not the face, towards Holy Kaaba.

Upon close inspection of the viral image, it can be noticed that in one of the images Ronaldo appeared to have six fingers on one hand – a common flaw in AI generated imagery.

Also, Ronaldo’s face in one of the images is seen distorted.

To further analyze the image, NewsMeter ran the image through the AI detection tool “True Media” and found substantial evidence of Artificial Intelligence in it.

Fact Check: No, Cristiano Ronaldo has not converted to Islam

Results varied while running the image through the Hive Moderation. However, it detected that one of the images likely contained 97.1 AI generated or deepfake content.

Fact Check: No, Cristiano Ronaldo has not converted to Islam

Upon searching the news report about Ronaldo embracing Islam also did not yield any positive result. However, some media reports citing interview of Ronaldo’s ex-team mate in a TV interview claimed that Ronaldo “shows a deep interest in Islam”.

Cristiano Ronaldo, the ace footballer, is currently playing for Al Nassr Football Club of Saudi Arabia since 2022.

Waleed Abdullah, who played for Al Nassr Football Club between 2017 and 2024 with Ronaldo, also claimed that the star footballer “genuinely wants to convert to Islam”.

But, there is no confirmation from any sources that Ronaldo has indeed converted to Islam.

Conclusion

It is therefore concluded that the viral images of Ronaldo and his partner inside Masjid al Haram in Makkah are AI generated.

And, thus the claim that he visited Makkah after converting to Islam is false.

[This story was originally published by NewsMeter, and republished with slight modification and edit by ummid.com as part of the Shakti Collective.]

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