Lisbon, Sept. 8, 2026 (Lusa Verifica) - The claim that «Ronaldo refused a ‘selfie' with Pedro Costa», the son of the president of the European Council, because António Costa was allegedly opposed to a crypto-asset platform launched by CR7 and Luís Figo, is a new hoax.
+++ Claim: «Ronaldo refused [a ‘selfie'] with António Costa's son» +++
Since the beginning of September, sponsored posts have been circulating on social media platform X, formerly Twitter, featuring graphics claiming that Cristiano Ronaldo chose not to take a ‘selfie' with Pedro Costa, the son of António Costa, because the latter was allegedly «trying to block» an artificial intelligence (AI)-based investment platform reportedly launched by Ronaldo and Luís Figo: https://archive.ph/C2r1K, https://archive.is/PwxW5 and https://archive.ph/xS5py (examples).
The ‘tweets' link to an alleged article in the newspaper ECO, which states that «the incident took place following Portugal's elimination from the 2026 World Cup on 6 July», when the national team lost «1–0 in the round of 16 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas»: https://archive.ph/VlnS9, https://archive.ph/ZOGgo and https://archive.ph/96ahE (examples).
The article states that the incident occurred «after the final whistle, [when] the team returned to the Four Seasons hotel in Dallas, where they had been staying» and where «dozens of fans and journalists were waiting at the entrance.» «It was then that the incident that caused a stir across the country took place. António Costa, President of the European Council, who was in the United States on an official visit, appeared at the entrance, accompanied by his son Pedro, who pulled out his mobile phone to take a selfie with Ronaldo.
Ronaldo looked at him, waved him away with a gesture and entered the hotel without saying a word. Pedro was left holding his mobile phone.» According to the same source, «the scene, filmed by dozens of mobile phones, went viral within minutes», but «to understand why Ronaldo did what he did, we need to go back a month.» The rest of the article explains that, «in May, Ronaldo and Luís Figo announced the launch of Eisen Peak — an investment platform based on artificial intelligence», whose «official presentation took place as part of a charity match at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon in early June», which «was packed with 62,000 spectators.» The article also mentions an alleged interview with Ronaldo and Figo conducted by SIC sports commentator Rui Santos, and it highlights António Costa's alleged post on X, in which he raises doubts about the platform in question.
«The Eisen Peak platform raises serious regulatory concerns. As prime minister, I worked closely with European regulators — I am familiar with these mechanisms. Financial instruments of this kind must be fully supervised by the CMVM and the European authorities. It is the responsibility of those in government to protect citizens from unverified financial products.» Luís Figo reportedly replied to this ‘tweet': «40,000 users. Zero complaints. Zero irregularities. When you were prime minister, your office was under investigation for corruption. Now, from Brussels, are you telling the Portuguese not to invest? Let everyone draw their own conclusions.» The article also features photos of the alleged platform presentation, but instead of Eisen Peak, the brand behind Figo and Ronaldo is Argentum AI, along with alleged testimonials from Elon Musk, the Office of the President of the Republic, the economist João Duque, and purported anonymous users.
When you click on the links to the platform, whose URL changes slightly depending on the advert, you are taken to the Eisen Peak sign-up page, with a limited number of «places available» (the number changes with each visit) and the promise that «you can earn from €10,000 to €60,000 a year»: https://archive.ph/h7B7N and https://archive.ph/EYcBS (examples).
On this page, which explains that investments are made through the «leading cryptocurrency exchanges», there are also alleged testimonials from «António Horta-Osório, former CEO of Credit Suisse and Chairman of the Montepio Group», as well as from «Carlos Moedas, Mayor of Lisbon and former European Commissioner».
+++ Facts: this is yet another scam that fraudulently uses the images of
+++ public figures +++
The similarities with previous scams that rely on false stories are easy to spot; these usually involve fabricating news articles in well-known newspapers and fraudulently using images of public figures from various fields, such as banking, economics and sport, among others.
Lusa Verifica has exposed several similar scams (https://archive.ph/wtOat), including those using fake articles from ECO; this is why the business publication has already filed a criminal complaint against this type of scam, which uses the newspaper's image to promote cryptocurrency trading platforms: https://archive.ph/xi2v6.
Even without this background, a careful analysis of the adverts, the alleged article, and the alleged platform's page leaves no doubt that this is a scam and that, contrary to what has been claimed, the story did not «go viral in a matter of minutes».
The alleged ECO article appears only on suspicious web addresses rather than on the newspaper's official website, https://eco.sapo.pt, and includes references to two distinct platforms: Eisen Peak and Argentum AI.
Furthermore, basic details in the article also fail to hold up, such as the name of the hotel, given that the national team did not stay at the ‘Four Seasons' in Dallas, but rather at the Adolphus Hotel, where Ronaldo and the other players entered and left via the back entrance (https://archive.ph/omCLR, https://archive.ph/x3iWs, https://archive.ph/bZara and https://archive.ph/86nxf), a location that differs completely from the hotel in the clearly AI-generated photo used in the alleged article, as shown by the geolocation of the real images: https://archive.ph/IYGBo.
Furthermore, the images of Pedro Costa, António Costa, and Ronaldo in front of the alleged hotel, or of Luís Figo and Ronaldo at the Estádio da Luz, are also easily identifiable as artificial, AI-generated images, even without detection tools: https://archive.ph/JNxFl and https://archive.ph/Jm3CT.
The faces clearly differ from the real ones, and several details appear distorted in the background and even in key areas, such as the child standing in front of Luís Figo, who wears a branded T-shirt with one letter missing and displays extra fingers on his shoulder, next to Figo's left hand.
The Eisen Peak registration page also contains glaring errors, such as claiming that António Horta Osório chairs the Montepio Group, which is false, as can be seen in the banker's CV (https://archive.ph/7oG1Q and https://archive.ph/IIJdT) and on the websites of Montepio Associação Mutualista, Banco Montepio or Fundação Montepio, for example: https://archive.ph/FVeJg, https://archive.ph/AqX4x and https://archive.ph/Z4itT.
The X accounts promoting these posts provide further evidence that this is a scam, as they appear to have been created specifically to promote this type of fraud, in the first instance (https://archive.ph/MrSkt), or to have been hacked.
One of the accounts had been inactive since 2015, belonging until then to a young Filipino individual, and the operators reactivated it on 7 September to serve as a vehicle for disseminating these posts (https://archive.ph/LLljc and https://archive.ph/CCB4W), Another account previously belonged to a young person from the Netherlands until 2015, after which it began promoting the fake ECO article: https://archive.ph/TEuQu.
In the last few hours, the platform suspended the latter account, and the other two accounts removed the posts mentioned in this fact-check; however, the fake ECO articles and the pages on the crypto-asset platform remain accessible.
+++ Lusa Verifica Assessment: False +++
The story of the alleged incident involving Cristiano Ronaldo, Pedro Costa and the latter's father, António Costa, outside a hotel in Dallas, concerning a platform for buying and selling crypto-assets – the promotion of which fraudulently involves the names of these and other public figures – is false.
As in previous cases, these posts on X rely on false narratives, backed by a non-existent ‘news story' and AI-generated images of public figures, to promote yet another fraudulent get-rich-quick scheme.
LYGA/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
