National Post (National Edition)
Ronaldo mania running wild in Turin
TURIN, ITALY • An icecream flavour in his honour, a pizza named after him, queues to buy his shirt: For some, Cristiano Ronaldo is as important as the Pope.
Juventus made shockwaves over the world on Tuesday when it completed the signing of Ronaldo from Real Madrid for a Serie A record of US$130M with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner signing a four-year deal with the Italian champion.
And Ronaldo mania is in full swing in Turin, with enterprising businessmen not missing the opportunity to celebrate the occasion and cash in on the arrival of the Portugal forward.
Leonardo La Porta, who has owned Gelateria Miretti in the heart of Turin for 30 years, has created a fla- vour called CR7 — Ronaldo’s famous brand name.
The 50-year-old La Porta is not a Juventus supporter, nor even a football fan, but has often creates flavours to mark important events in the city.
However, he has only created one flavour in honour of a person before — when the Pope came to Turin in 2015.
La Porta put a lot of thought into creating the CR7 flavour, which he wanted to represent a union between Portugal and Turin.
“I put it on sale on the date 7/7 because it was the day it was rumoured Cristiano Ronaldo would be presented,” La Porta told The Associated Press. “I thought of it a week before, the research was quite intense. We chose to use a typical Portuguese liquor which is the Ginja, it is a sour cherry liquor which strongly links Portugal to the Piedmont region because here too in Piedmont we have a similar cherry liquor. In Portugal this liquor is served in a chocolate cup, so this ice cream is made up of milk, cream, sugar and carob flour, with this Ginja liquor and pieces of chocolate.”
The taste is rich and flavourful, with hints of spice and fruit. “I hope (Ronaldo) can come here to try it,” said La Porta, adding the flavour regularly sells out. “If not, I’m ready to go to his house to make it for him. We’ll see.”