A Kurdish translator plays a key role in facilitating communication for Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese star of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr club. While details about him remain largely unknown, this translator has built a close working relationship with the football icon.
During a special ceremony to celebrate Ronaldo’s 40th birthday at Al-Nassr’s training session, Mahmoud Hanan, a Kurd from Western Kurdistan (Rojava), interpreted the footballer’s words into Arabic for the Saudi club’s players. Hanan has long been serving as Ronaldo’s translator at the club.
Born in 1973 in Jabaliya, a village in the Rajo district of Afrin, Hanan is multilingual, fluent in Serbian, Croatian, English, Bosnian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Kurdish. Hanan has previously expressed his pride in working with Ronaldo, calling it a great honor to assist the player, whom he describes as having a “very strong and special personality.”