Ronaldo vows to help disaster stricken Madeira

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FUNCHAL, Portugal, Feb 21, 2010 (AFP) - Football star Cristiano Ronaldo said Sunday he had been left "incredulous" and "shocked" by the mudslide disaster which hit his native Madeira and promised help for relief efforts.

"It is a huge catastrophe, a tragedy without precedent," said the world's most expensive footballer, who was born in a poor district of Funchal, capital of Madeira, where at least 40 people died in storms which unleased torrents of mud on Saturday.

"No-one can remain indifferent to a calamity of such huge proportions, least of all me who was born and grew up in Madeira, an island which clearly I think about a lot," he was quoted as saying on the website of his agent, Gestifrute.

"It is for this reason that I want to express my availability to help the organisations and official entities, in the limit of what is possible, to alleviate and overcome the consequences of this great devastation," declared Ronaldo, who cost a record 94 million euros when he was transferred from Manchester United to Madrid in 2008.