Kick-a-cola: Ronaldo, Coke and the athlete-soda relationship

Some hours before Cristiano Ronaldo became the highest scorer in Euro history, he made a big substitution. He pulled Coke off a table during a virtual press conference and put water in its place.

“Agua,” he said in Portuguese before the defending champions’ Euro 2020 opener against Hungary. Drink water, not cola, was his message.

Coca Cola suffered a loss of about $4 billion in the following hours.

Soft drinks and sports stars were once a traditional match. If you had a cola deal, you had arrived. But in this more health-conscious era, athletes maintain an ex-lover’s distance from fizzy bottles.

Some have even had the integrity to refuse or not renew lucrative cola endorsements. India’s badminton great P. Gopichand said “no thanks” to one cola brand, and after him, Virat Kohli. Fittingly, Kohli is an admirer of Ronaldo’s.

Gopichand, an intensely disciplined man who rarely allows a morsel of sweet to pass through the sugar detectors in his system, once told Business Standard, "Since 1997, I have stopped drinking soft drinks. After seeing the reports, as well as studies on the health hazards of these products, I stopped their consumption. Only my family members and friends were aware of the (endorsement) offer and my decision. I could not go against what I believed. If you'd like, you can call it ethics."

In 2017, when Kohli decided not to renew his contract with Pepsi, he said, “Things that I've endorsed in the past, I won't take names, but something that I feel that I don't connect to anymore. If I myself won't consume such things, I won't urge others to consume it just because I'm getting money out of it."

But athletes don’t generally mess with contractual obligations between an event and a sponsor, which require the bottles to be placed at designated places. I watched Ronaldo’s full press conference to get some answers or a sense of his mood. But no one asked him about the bottles.

It is possible, therefore, that Ronaldo arrived at the press conference in an irritable state of mind. Or he avoids cola more than fast food, as he does have a deal with KFC. Or he thought he had earned the stature to make a point even if it ruffled feathers.

However, even in this time in history where aerated drinks are frowned upon, there are athletes who continue to drink them. Some of them actually like a swig during a contest, and for scientific reasons.

The former cyclist Ted King, who has competed in the Tour de France, once told The Wall Street Journal, “A really cold soda on a hot day is that blast of energy you need. There’s something about the quick caffeine and simple sugar that helps fuel the final bit of a race.”

Another point he made was, “Your palate can only take so many sports-specific things.”

Ultra marathoner Camille Heron also revs herself up with some cola during 100km races. “It just lit me up,” she said when she first had Coke during a race. “I couldn’t wait to get to the next aid station to get my Coke.” Herron also drinks three to four cans of Coke during a week when she is training.

Tennis players Dominic Thiem and Gael Monfils have surprised many with their choice of courtside poison during matches.

Thiem sips Red Bull, who are also his sponsors. But if he is putting it in his body even during major tournaments, it must be doing him some good. “Sometimes it helps me a lot on court, so I want to have it,” he once said.

The colourful Monfils, not one to be as monk-like as Ronaldo or Gopichand with nutrition, simply enjoys Coke. “Sometimes, you know, I just feel like I want a Coke, and I drink a Coke,” he said.

Ronaldo would have something to say to that.