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Europe

Fasten your seatbelts: Cristiano Ronaldo Airport is here

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Fans wait at the Madeira international airport outside Funchal, the capital of Madeira island, Portugal, Wednesday March 29, 2017. Madeira International Airport will be renamed after local soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday during a ceremony, with family at the airport outside his Funchal hometown. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) (The Associated Press)

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    Fans wait at the Madeira international airport outside Funchal, the capital of Madeira island, Portugal, Wednesday March 29, 2017. Madeira International Airport will be renamed after local soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday during a ceremony, with family at the airport outside his Funchal hometown. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) (The Associated Press)

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    Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo reacts during the international friendly soccer match between Portugal and Sweden at the dos Barreiros stadium in Funchal, Madeira island, Portugal, Tuesday, March 28 2017. (AP Photo/Armando Franca) (The Associated Press)

FUNCHAL, Portugal – Cristiano Ronaldo now has an international airport named after him.

The Real Madrid striker was joined Wednesday by dozens of guests and hundreds of fans in his native Madeira Islands for an official ceremony renaming the local airport as Aeroporto Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal's president and the prime minister flew to the island and unveiled a commemorative plaque.

The 32-year-old Ronaldo is a local hero in Madeira, where he is seen as a rags-to-riches success.

Ronaldo is not the first soccer player with his name on an airport. In Northern Ireland, an airport was renamed George Best Belfast City Airport in 2006, a year after the local player and former Manchester United winger died.