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Cristiano Ronaldo has been confirmed to headline this week’s Dubai International Sports Conference.
The Juventus forward, 34, will appear as guest speaker at the event on Saturday, which takes place at Madinat Jumeirah under the theme “Football Future Accelerators”.
Ronaldo will be joined at the conference by club teammate Miralem Pjanic, fellow Portugal national team forward Joao Felix, and Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku. France’s 2018 World Cup-winning manager Didier Deschamps and Wales counterpart Ryan Giggs were also among the names confirmed last week.
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Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, will be present at the Dubai Globe Soccer Awards the following day, where he has been nominated for Best Men’s Player.
A five-time winner of that title – he collected his most recent earlier this year – the Portugal captain is up against Barcelona rival Lionel Messi, Liverpool quartet Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson, and Manchester City winger Bernardo Silva.
Meanwhile, Edwin van der Sar, Fabio Capello, Mikael Silvestre and City chief executive Ferran Soriano have already been secured to speak at the conference, which is now in its 14th year.
However, it will for the first time include an all-female session, featuring 2019 Uefa women’s player of the year Lucy Bronze, France captain Amandine Henry, Italy captain Sara Gama and history-making referee Stephanie Frappart. Moderated by Singapore-based sports journalist Ash Hashim, the discussion is entitled “Empowering Women in Football”.