• Merih Demiral, a Turkish soccer player, has launched a fundraising campaign.
• He has received support from some of the sport’s biggest names, including Cristiano Ronaldo.
• The highest bid for Ronaldo’s jersey was around $212,450.

Following this week’s massive earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, which killed over 23,000 people, Turkish soccer player Merih Demiral announced a fundraising campaign that has garnered support from some of his sport’s biggest names.

Demiral, a defender for Italian club Atalanta and the Turkish national team, raised funds for relief efforts on Tuesday through his professional esports team, Team Demiral. Later that day, Demiral stated that he spoke with Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, as well as Serie A counterparts Leonardo Bonucci and Paulo Dybala, who offered signed jerseys to be auctioned off, with proceeds going to a nonprofit aiding earthquake disaster relief.

This week, Demiral’s roster of high-profile contributors has grown. Antoine Griezmann and lvaro Morata of Atlético Madrid donated signed jerseys on Wednesday, and Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane and teammate Dejan Kulusevski, on loan from Juventus, did the same on Thursday.

By Friday, the donor list had grown to include some of  the sport’s biggest names, including Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, Real Madrid’s Eden Hazard, and Paris Saint-Lionel Germain’s Messi and Kylian Mbappé. As of Friday afternoon, the highest bid for Ronaldo jersey, which is now sold, was around $212,450.

Saat 15.00 itibariyle açık artırmalarda formalara verilen en yüksek teklifler @vefakuzu ve @Mehmettumbull tarafından verilmiştir ve aşağıdaki şekildedir.

Tekliflerinizi bugün saat 22.00’a kadar @TeamDemiral ve teamdemiral@gmail.com üzerinden iletebilirsiniz. pic.twitter.com/UbTuOaSGO4

— Merih Demiral (@Merihdemiral) February 8, 2023

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