An Everton fan's mum has been left angered by Cristiano Ronaldo's apology after an incident involving her 14-year-old son following Manchester United's defeat on Merseyside.
As Ronaldo was walking off the pitch at Goodison Park he allegedly knocked a mobile phone out of the hands of a watching fan. The 37-year-old later took to Instagram to apologise for what he called an 'outburst'.
He said: "It’s never easy to deal with emotions in difficult moments such as the one we are facing. Nevertheless, we always have to be respectful, patient and set the example for all the youngsters who love the beautiful game.
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"I would like to apologise for my outburst and, if possible, I would like to invite this supporter to watch a game at Old Trafford as a sign of fair play and sportsmanship."
Sarah Kelly, whose son, Jacob Harding, was involved in the incident has now hit out at the Portuguese forward for his apology. "The apology, or lack of apology, was what angered me even more," Kelly explained to The Telegraph. "I thought, ‘How rude - you are telling everybody you have apologised and you haven’t’.
"OK, you have put it out to social media but you should be apologising to my son. He [Ronaldo] had several hours to ponder on it.
"He should have found out our contact details, been private, said he had spoken to us and released something. I would have been happy with that."
One of Ronaldo's and United's representatives has since been in contact with the family. Kelly added that the United players, including Ronaldo, had been high-fiving fans before the game.
She continued: "There were loads of other people waving their phones around. Jacob was in a world of his own. As he come off, he was, ‘Mum, Ronaldo’s hurt, I’m videoing’. I was, ‘OK’. I didn’t think anything of it. He wasn’t even looking at Ronaldo. He was looking at what he’d done to his leg and didn't realise the situation until the phone was on the floor.
"You can the shock on Jacob’s face. He looks at me like, ‘Oh my god - that just happened’.
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"That was the reaction. It is pretty forceful. He has released what he has released," she added. "I was quite shocked United hadn’t put a statement out asking us to get in touch, just something a bit heartfelt, rather than Ronaldo saying the supporter can come to me.
"That comes across really, really rude to me. Why would we, as Everton fans, go to United? He put, ‘this supporter’, it doesn’t state if he was an Everton supporter or a United supporter. It’s just a very, very weak apology in my opinion."
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