Captain Ronaldo's Armband Auctioned To Help Babies With Rare Diseases, Just A Few Hours Reached IDR 51 Million

JAKARTA - The captain's armband that Cristiano Ronaldo threw to the ground after his kick was deemed invalid in last weekend's World Cup qualifier against Serbia, was auctioned off in an attempt to help a baby with a rare disease.

At 2-2, Ronaldo thought he had scored the crucial goal in injury time when the ball appeared to cross the line before Stefan Mitrovic cleared the ball.

An angry Ronaldo was shown a yellow card for his protests along with the end of the game whistle, throwing his captain's armband on the ground.

One of the officers at the stadium took the captain's armband and immediately contacted a regional sports channel with the idea of auctioning it off for charity.

The man, who asked not to be identified, told AFP on Tuesday that he was suggesting raising the funds needed to care for a six-month-old baby, Gavrilo Djurdjevic, who is suffering from a rare disease.

"He (Ronaldo) threw the armband three meters away from me, and I immediately thought that this (sale) could be a good opportunity", the man said.

"I realized we were attracting attention and could do something good for Gavrilo", he added.

After the SportKlub channel verified the authenticity of the item by checking post-match photos and videos, they teamed up with a charity organization and put Ronaldo's captain's armband up for auction on the Limundo.com site.

"I hope we can contact Ronaldo himself ... so we can help Gavrilo as best we can", said Branislav Jocic, SportKlub's social media manager.

The baby has spinal muscular atrophy, which is found in one in 10,000 births and results in death or the need for permanent ventilation by age two in 90 percent of cases.

The baby is expected to receive Zolgensma treatment, also known as "the world's most expensive drug", which will cost more than € 2 million (around IDR 34.2 billion).

A recent fundraising campaign to help children with spinal muscular atrophy has taken the impoverished Balkan nation by storm, raising the number needed for five babies last year.

Just hours after being auctioned off, Ronaldo's captain's armband had hit the price of € 3,000 (around IDR 51 million).