Armband flung to floor in epic Cristiano Ronaldo strop goes up for auction to help sick youngster in Serbia

The armband tossed to the ground by a furious Cristiano Ronaldo after he was denied a late winner in Portugal’s World Cup qualifier against Serbia last weekend has been put up for auction to raise funds for a sick child.

Ronaldo responded with disgust in Belgrade after his late effort appeared to cross the goal-line before being cleared by Serbia’s Stefan Mitrovic, only for match officials to wave play on.

The enraged Portugal skipper stormed off the pitch before the final whistle, flinging his armband to the ground as he did so and earning a yellow card for the protest.

But a quick-thinking steward has now turned Ronaldo’s tragedy into a potential ray of hope for a local child, picking up the discarded item and contacting a sports channel with a plan to auction it for charity.

The man has requested to remain anonymous, but told the AFP: “He (Ronaldo) threw the armband three metres away from me, and the idea immediately occurred to me that this (sale) could be a good opportunity.”

He said the authenticity of the item had been verified, and that it would be sold on the website limundo.com to raise funds for a six-month-old baby, Gavrilo Djurdjevic, who is suffering from a rare disease.

Branislav Jocic, social media manager of sports channel Sportklub, said: "I hope we will be able to reach Ronaldo himself... so we could help Gavrilo as much as we can."

Ronaldo’s tantrum came at 2-2 in Belgrade, after the hosts had pegged Portugal back from 2-0 down. Diogo Jota had scored twice for the visitors, before Aleksandar Mitrovic and Filip Kotic leveled the score.

Ronaldo – who was bidding to add to his international tally of 102 goals and edge closer to the all-time record of 109 held by Iranian legend Ali Daei – was criticized by some in his homeland for his reaction to the disallowed goal.

Former Portugal international Fernando Meira claimed the outburst was “not acceptable from the national team captain.”

However, the referee at the center of the storm, Dutchman Danny Makkelie, has apologized to Ronaldo and Portugal for the apparent blunder, while UEFA said the incident could have been avoided if the two nations had agreed on the use of goal-line technology prior to the match.  

Meanwhile, Ronaldo, 36, will have the chance to rectify that perceived injustice when he leads the European champions out against minnows Luxembourg on Tuesday night.