Bernardo Silva reveals Ronaldo urged teammates to donate half of Euro 2020 bonus

Bernardo Silva has opened up on how a WhatsApp conversation with Cristiano Ronaldo led to the Portugal national team donating 50 per cent of their Euro 2020 qualifying bonus to help fight coronavirus.

Ronaldo has been revealed as the driving force behind the generous donation which will be used to help non-professional teams across Portugal stay alive as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to prove financially damaging for lower-division teams.

When asked how Ronaldo behaves on his phone and in group chats with other players during an Instagram Live, Silva explained how the generous donation came from the Juventus star.

'He was the one, two or three days ago, that gave us the idea to donate our bonus,' the Manchester City midfielder told Bleacher Report.

'So we qualified to the 2020 Euros, which now is in 2021.

'And he gave us the idea let's donate part of our bonus, so I think our national team, our players will donate 50 percent of our qualifying bonus.'

Ronaldo is Portugal's captain and takes his role as a leader in the group seriously, as shown by his latest move to see half of the qualifying bonus go to the national FA's fund.

Portugal has just under 17,000 cases of positive coronavirus tests at the time of writing.

A statement from the Portuguese Football Federation later confirmed players would forgo half of their bonus.

'In this spirit of camaraderie between professional and non-professional football, we have decided, as a team, to give up part of our Euro 2020 qualification prize money,' the statement read.

'We have also decided, because we have not forgotten our own paths and all those who have generously helped us to make progress in our careers, that these amounts will be added to the support fund already created by the FPF (Portuguese federation) aimed mainly at players from non-professional competition clubs.'

Ronaldo has shown his generosity since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus having previously donated £1million with agent Jorge Mendes, to three intensive care units for coronavirus patients across Portugal.

The pair planned to equip two wards in Santa Maria hospital in Lisbon and one in Santo Antonio in Porto.

Wards in Santa Maria will come with ten beds and ventilators while the wing in Santo Antonio will have 15 beds and ventilators.

He is also part of a Juventus squad that has agreed to waive wages for four months.

The agreement is set to be worth around 90 million euros (£80m) to the reigning champions.

It will see Ronaldo give up around £9m of his yearly salary in Turin on top of all the other charitable donations he is making back in his native Portugal.