Farense’s former Dundee United star Ryan Gauld is the face of a new Covid-19 awareness campaign aimed at schoolkids.
The playmaker – who has been in fine form in the top flight this season – speaks fluent Portuguese in a launch video released by Faro Municipality and highlighted on Twitter by Football From Afar blogger Byron Hutchison.
Hutchison wrote: “Ryan Gauld, in Portuguese, encouraging local school kids to take action and continue the fight against COVID-19 is it? Lovely.”
The ad sees Gauld, 24, tell local youngsters: “A player lives off the game of feint, shooting, goal.
“But the truth is that football lives on people, fans – our people. That is why we need more than ever to be responsible.
“In football, as in school, the virus is not confined to a single space. Take the habits that school teaches you to all the places that life takes you.
“Get conscious. Protect, protecting yourself.”
And fans praised ex-Sporting Lisbon midfielder Gauld’s delivery of the message in Portuguese.
‘Ryan Gauld, athlete from Sporting Clube Farense, is the protagonist of this campaign’
@wgsaraband wrote: “He even has a Farense accent popping up in certain syllables, this is perfect.”
@tiagoestv added: “Holy s***, it’s perfect. Like, I get that he’s reading but the pronunciation is really, really perfect.”
Faro Municipality acknowledged the Scot for his starring role in the campaign.
They said: “Ryan Gauld, athlete from Sporting Clube Farense, is the protagonist of this campaign where the analogy is made between sport and combating the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The municipality intends to send the message that in football, as in a community, we have to play as a team to obtain results.
“And above all, in football, as in a school, the virus is not confined to just one space.
“It is an initiative of the Municipality of Faro, carried out in conjunction with school groups in the municipality thus ensuring the involvement of the entire school community.”