Portugal welcomes a special fan: RI tsunami survivor

Portugal welcomes a special fan: RI tsunami survivor

Agencies
Portugal

When Portugal walks onto the field in Lisbon on Saturday to
play Slovakia in a World Cup soccer qualifying match, its captain
will be holding the hand of a special guest -- a seven-year-old
Indonesian boy who survived alone for 19 days after the Dec. 26
tsunami.

Martunis will hold the Portugal captain's hand -- likely to be
Luis Figo if selected -- when the two teams enter the 65,000-seat
Stadium of Light arena for the Group 3 match.

"This was a promise we made, that he would meet the players,
and they also want to see him," Portuguese federation president
Gilberto Madail said as he sat by Martunis and the boy's father
at a news conference on Wednesday.

Portugal's Brazilian coach, Luiz Felipe Scolari, bought
Martunis and his family a house in Indonesia last year on behalf
of the team. Now, the Portugal soccer federation is giving them
40,000 euros (US$49,000).

The aid will be officially presented to Martunis before the
World Cup qualifier in Lisbon,

"He is going to be there to support Portugal," said Madail.

The money includes funds raised from an auction of jerseys
used by Portuguese soccer stars such as Real Madrid's Luis Figo
and Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo, the boy's favorite
player, as well as direct donations from the players.

Martunis, who is being accompanied on his trip by a
psychologist, arrived in Portugal late on Sunday and will stay in
the country until Monday.

He was found on a beach in Banda Aceh, wearing a Portugal
soccer shirt, by a film crew. Images of him in the shirt prompted
Portuguese soccer officials to invite him to Lisbon.

Martunis survived by drinking puddle water and eating dried
noodles after his parents were swept away by the tsunami. He was
later reunited with his father and grandfather at a hospital.