Fact Check: No, Ronaldo's hometown did not host a drone light farewell
India Today Fact Check found that this video is AI-generated.
India Today Fact Check
Cristiano Ronaldo played his last FIFA World Cup game on Tuesday. Now, a video purportedly showing his farewell in his hometown, Madeira in Portugal, has gone viral on social media.
This video shows a drone light display featuring Ronaldo’s famous “Siuu” celebration after scoring a goal, with a national flag of Portugal and a “Thank You” note in Portuguese. The video was shared by many, alongside captions like, “A drone farewell for Cristiano Ronaldo in his hometown, Madeira.”
India Today Fact Check found that the video is AI-generated. No such farewell for Cristiano Ronaldo was organised in any Portuguese city.
OUR PROBE
Using Google Lens, we traced the video to its original source: an Instagram account named Seihan AIfilms. The clip was uploaded after Portugal's 0-1 loss to Spain in the Round of 16.
In the caption, the account asked followers to comment "CR7" to receive the prompt used to create the video, confirming that it was AI-generated. The account also credited PixVerse, an AI video generation platform, and tagged its official Instagram page.
Seihan AIfilms’s bio further describes the account as an "AI Video Creator & Digital Filmmaker." Dozens of similar AI-generated clips can be seen on the page.
We further searched using Portuguese and Spanish keywords to check whether any farewell event for Ronaldo had taken place in Madeira on Tuesday night, but found no such reports.
It is also worth noting that Ronaldo has not announced his retirement from the Portuguese national team — he has only said this World Cup would be his last.
We can therefore conclude that the AI-generated video was falsely circulated as a genuine farewell organised by Cristiano Ronaldo's hometown following Portugal's exit from the World Cup.
Cristiano Ronaldo played his last FIFA World Cup game on Tuesday. Now, a video purportedly showing his farewell in his hometown, Madeira in Portugal, has gone viral on social media.
This video shows a drone light display featuring Ronaldo’s famous “Siuu” celebration after scoring a goal, with a national flag of Portugal and a “Thank You” note in Portuguese. The video was shared by many, alongside captions like, “A drone farewell for Cristiano Ronaldo in his hometown, Madeira.”
India Today Fact Check found that the video is AI-generated. No such farewell for Cristiano Ronaldo was organised in any Portuguese city.
OUR PROBE
Using Google Lens, we traced the video to its original source: an Instagram account named Seihan AIfilms. The clip was uploaded after Portugal's 0-1 loss to Spain in the Round of 16.
In the caption, the account asked followers to comment "CR7" to receive the prompt used to create the video, confirming that it was AI-generated. The account also credited PixVerse, an AI video generation platform, and tagged its official Instagram page.
Seihan AIfilms’s bio further describes the account as an "AI Video Creator & Digital Filmmaker." Dozens of similar AI-generated clips can be seen on the page.
We further searched using Portuguese and Spanish keywords to check whether any farewell event for Ronaldo had taken place in Madeira on Tuesday night, but found no such reports.
It is also worth noting that Ronaldo has not announced his retirement from the Portuguese national team — he has only said this World Cup would be his last.
We can therefore conclude that the AI-generated video was falsely circulated as a genuine farewell organised by Cristiano Ronaldo's hometown following Portugal's exit from the World Cup.