So determined were Turkmenistan’s rulers to make an extravagant event of a competitive football match featuring superstar forward Ronaldo in the capital Ashgabat that they even spent weeks training university students in freezing weather how to chant and raise their arms like regular match-going fans.

Alas, as it turned out, Ronaldo – who has reportedly been in dispute with the Saudi club he plays for, Al Nassr, over a lack of spending on new players – did not even travel to Turkmenistan for the February 11 match at Ashgabat Olympic Stadium.

Adding to the disappointment for the Turkmen crowd, the home side then went down to a narrow 0:1 defeat. Turkmen champions FK Arkadag, a team put together with no expense spared on finding the best Turkmen players at the instruction of the country’s “Leader of the Nation” Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, are competing in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League knockout stages for the first time. They will travel to Riyadh for the second leg of the contest on February 18.

Al-Nassr informed media that Ronaldo was not included in the squad for the Arkadag game because the coaches decided he needed a rest ahead of a busy run of matches.

RFE/RL reported sources in Turkmenistan as saying Ronaldo's absence "depressed" both citizens and the authorities.

"The absence of the famous football star Ronaldo in the Al-Nassr football team upset the Turkmen government. If Ronaldo had come, he would have been shown on Turkmen TV channels, and, as was the case with the arrival of foreign music stars and other famous representatives before, the intention was to show that foreigners were eager and dreaming of visiting Turkmenistan," a source was reported as saying.

FK Arkadag were founded four years ago. They have come under fire for building a team based on “financial doping” authorised by Berdimuhamedov and nabbing the top players of rivals.

In their first season, they blitzed the country’s top league, winning every single one of their matches.

Sporting heroics and fitness are two aspects of the cult of personality built by the Berdimuhamedov family.