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Footballer Ronaldo campaigns for Nepal but $8 million donation is false: charity

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Soccer idol Cristiano Ronaldo has actively campaigned to help raise funds for victims of the Nepal earthquakes but he has not donated $8 million himself as widely reported, the charity Save the Children said on Thursday.

The 30-year-old Real Madrid striker appeal led to his 100 million-plus Facebook followers to donate to the charity after the first of two quakes struck, killing more than 8,000 people.

He was reported to have given 7 million euros ($7.8 million) of his own money.

But the charity said the report, which originated in the French magazine So Foot on May 7 and has since been published widely by other international media, was false.