The son of the Syrian refugee tripped by a Hungarian journalist accompanied Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo onto the pitch before the team’s Spanish league game on Saturday.
Zaid Abdul Mohsen, accompanied by his father Osama and brother Mohammad, toured the Bernabeu stadium and had a kick-about on the pitch ahead of Real Madrid’s match against Granada.
Mohsen was captured on video carrying seven-year-old Zaid when Hungarian camerawoman Petra Laszlo tripped him and sent him tumbling to the ground in a field full of other migrants running from authorities near the Hungarian village of Roszke.
Images of him being tripped by the Hungarian journalist provoked outrage across the continent.
WATCH BELOW: See the original footage of Mohsen being tripped while carrying his young son Zaid which shocked Europe and the world
The family arrived in Germany last week exhausted from the long journey and the international spotlight that followed them after the tripping incident, but young Zaid still had the strength to open a broad smile and declare his love for soccer and his greatest idol: “Cristiano Ronaldo.”
After the incident in Hungary, Mohsen ended up in Germany, where media reports revealed he had been a soccer coach in Syria. That prompted a Spanish soccer academy to offer to rebuild his life.
The CENAFE school in the suburb off Getafe helped bring Mohsen to Spain and will give him a job and a place to live near its training facility.
“Hopefully this will serve as an example to the rest of Europe,” said school president Miguel Galan.
“We need to help these people.”
READ MORE: Syrian tripped by Hungarian journalist arrives in Madrid
Galan will now try to bring Mohsen’s wife and his other two children from a refugee camp in Turkey. Getafe authorities will also work to get the family legalized in Spain as soon as possible so Mohsen can start working as a coach. He and his family will also have to learn Spanish.
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