Coca-Cola loses billions in market value - because of Ronaldo's action on the PK

Cristiano Ronaldo is a superstar and one of the greatest advertising icons in the world.

That means unimagined market power, as Coca-Cola had to experience now.

Budapest - Cristiano Ronaldo has just made history again.

In the European Championship game between the Portuguese and Hungary, CR7 scored two goals.

With eleven goals in five major tournaments, Ronaldo is now number 1 - ahead of the legendary French playmaker Michel Platini.

Now it should not be long before Ronaldo cracks the legendary record of the former FC Bayern striker Ali Daei.

The former Iranian international scored 109 goals in 149 international matches.

The Portuguese is now at 106 goals after 176 appearances for his country.

But Ronaldo, who at 36 years of age has a rather biblical age for a world-class striker, is in top shape.

This is also due to his diet.

The kicker is obsessed with perfect nutrition and swears by proteins and carbohydrates.

In contrast, the professional practically completely dispenses with foods containing sugar.

In the industry, Ronaldo is considered a health fanatic anyway.

Coca-Cola just felt that too.

At the press conference on the Monday before the European Championship game in Budapest, Ronaldo made it unmistakably clear what he thought of the sugar drink.

As soon as he sat down, he put the two Coke bottles aside and instead picked up a bottle of water.

"Agua" said Ronaldo and one can safely understand that as an invitation to drink water rather than the global corporation's caffeinated soda.

Ronaldo: Press conference turns into a PR disaster

For Coca-Cola, the appearance of the health-conscious athlete was a super disaster in PR terms.

The US giant was also hit hard on the stock exchange.

Within minutes, the price of the Coca-Cola share fell by 1.6 percent within a few minutes.

In total, a whopping four billion dollars in market value were destroyed, as the Telegraph now calculated.

So it's no wonder that the Americans tried to limit the damage.

Everyone has "the right to their drink preferences with different tastes and needs," the company quickly assured on Tuesday.

And a UEFA spokesman assured that when the players arrived at the press conference, they would be offered "water as well as Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar" - only on Tuesday of all people apparently no one had asked the self-confessed sugar agnostic.