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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Malik Ouzia

Mother of Everton fan blasts Cristiano Ronaldo apology over phone incident

The mother of an Everton fan involved in an incident with Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo following Saturday’s match has blasted the forward over his “lack of apology”.

Ronaldo appeared to knock a phone from the hands of 14-year-old Jacob Harding, who was filming the Portuguese as he left the pitch following his side’s 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park.

On Sunday, Merseyside Police announced they were reviewing CCTV footage to establish whether the 37-year-old committed an offence during the incident.

Ronaldo himself issued a statement on social media, apologising for what he called an “outburst” and inviting the fan in question to attend a match at Old Trafford.

However, Sarah Kelly, mother of Harding, says she has not been satisfied with the striker’s response.

“The apology, or lack of apology, was what angered me even more,” Kelly told 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 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.”

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