An express appearance and hundreds of frustrated fans: Ronaldinho’s visit to Vernier turned into a fiasco on Sunday. The Brazilian legend was passing through the Étang district, in the suburbs of Geneva, to inaugurate the opening of his first restaurant, a burger brand called R10 Burger.
The announced program had something to seduce: for journalists, the possibility of interviewing the 2005 Ballon d’Or on site; for the public, the opportunity to see him in person and to obtain, for the lucky ones, autographs and photos. However, nothing went as planned.
The curious had started to gather in numbers at the scene at midday, says The Geneva Tribune. When Ronaldinho arrived in the middle of the afternoon, the security system proved insufficient to contain the general excitement. The limousine which was transporting him found itself surrounded and when he left the vehicle, no barrier had been set up. So much so that a crowd movement was created and only a small handful of agents acted as a barrier.
Faced with the turn of events, it was decided to evacuate the icon as quickly as possible. The latter painfully reached the restaurant from the back, probably annoyed, and then made an appearance for a few seconds on a balcony before being exfiltrated from an underground garage, in the greatest discretion.
Around 6:30 p.m., the fans learned through a manager that the former Barça player would not return to mingle with them, provoking a deluge of boos. The ambient anger was quickly reflected in the first ratings given online to the establishment, accused of a failing organization.
This is called a messed up ad.
