Ahead of their match against Uruguay, Portugal trained at the facility of Al-Shahaniya Sports Club at Al-Shahaniya, a town famous for camel racing.
The entire squad was on the pitch, but strangely everyone was standing silent and motionless. When I asked their media manager Francisco Abreu about it, he pressed his index finger to lips, asking me to be quiet.
The team was offering a brief, silent prayer at the centre of the pitch with head coach Fernando Santos standing in the middle of a circle of players. After a minute, Santos blew his whistle and the team started doing warm-up drills. The media manager too broke his silence and explained what had happened. They were observing one-minute silence in respect of the late former Portugal international striker Fernando Gomes who died on Saturday. One of the finest strikers to have emerged from Portugal, Gomes amassed a staggering haul of 355 goals in 452 games in two spells at FC Porto, winning the European Cup with them in 1987. For the national team, he scored 11 goals in 48 games as well.
After paying their respects to the legendary footballer, the players started honing their skills under the watchful eyes of Santos. Captain Cristiano Ronaldo, who set a record by scoring in his fifth World Cup in their 3-2 win over Ghana, made a diving tackle on a teammate who snatched the ball away from him. He trained with plenty of energy and enthusiasm as he knows that Portugal could qualify early for the next phase of the World Cup with a game remaining if they beat Uruguay on Monday.
When we left the arena after the training session, a mother and child from Iran were seen standing outside the facility. The boy was wearing Portugal's red and green jersey and was holding a portrait of Ronaldo.
The young Farsi wanted to meet his favourite star and click a photo with him. His mother approached the people who were leaving the stadium and requested them to take his son to Ronaldo, but they moved on expressing their helplessness. The duo were not ready to budge as they remained at the entrance of the stadium hoping that somebody will help them out. One day Ronaldo might answer their prayers!