Portugal’s best and Manchester United’s darling midfielder, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was brought into this world on February 5, 1985 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. His mother Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro and father Jose Dinis Aveiro had four children. His parents decided to name this future famous footballer after someone that you wouldn’t think a Portuguese family would normally consider. He was named after the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.A passionate desire to play on the field and an undying love for football, Cristiano’s interest in the great sport of football started when he was just three years old. When Cristiano was around ten or so, word of his spectacular skills on the field was getting around his native country of Portugal. The young midfielder was soon getting a lot of much deserved interest from some of the most popular clubs in Portugal; Cristiano’s football future was looking very bright.
After stints with three different youth clubs, Andorinha, CD Nacional, and Sporting CP’s youth club, Ronaldo finally made his debut with his first senior club, Sporting CP or Sporting Clube de Portugal. An influential impression was made against his current club Manchester United in 2003 in front of world famous football manager Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United. This match resulted in an embarrassing loss for one of the English Premiership League’s best, Sporting handed Manchester United a beating with a final score of 3-1. Not only did Ferguson take notice of Cristiano’s amazing performance but the Manchester United players were absolutely blown away by the midfielder’s play. Cristiano Ronaldo’s on field heroics stirred up so much talk about him from the opposing United players that they were saying something that almost never gets said about any opponent, they said they would much rather play with him, rather than against him. What was to follow was nothing short of a surprise to many as a young Portuguese player was soon to take the world of football by storm.After a scintillating performance against the most famous football club in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo received instant respect and was finally considered as an elite football player.
To Cristiano’s fortune Manchester United was in dire need of a midfielder after superstar David Beckhman left to play for Real Madrid.The void created by Beckham was huge and Manchester United had to fill it up with a superstar who could take them to the promised land. After a lot of speculation and drama surrounding the replacement, Manchester United finally signed Cristiano Ronaldo after his stint with Sporting CP ended in 2003.From the very day Cristiano signed with Manchester United, his football career took off and hasn’t slowed since. In the same year he also made his debut for the national team of Portugal playing in a match against Kazakhastan. In the following year, Ronaldo put up one of his best performances. In the World Cup qualifying games the superstar midfielder scored 7 goals and made his presence felt in the Portuguese national team. Only a year later in 2005, Cristiano Ronaldo netted 11 goals for his country in 25 appearances. Although the up and coming superstar was making waves in the international football stage, controversy hit in the 2006 World Cup and it involved someone that was closely linked to him at his club Manchester United.Manchester United teammate of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, striker for the English squad received a red card in a very important match, England versus Portugal in the World Cup quarterfinals.
The real conflict wasn’t Rooney getting booted; it was the reason for the ejection that started the controversy that might have possibly turned the Manchester United squad upside down.Arguably, most would agree that the whole situation was not the fault of Cristiano Ronaldo, but Rooney got in a dust up with a few of the Portugal players and Ronaldo got in the middle of the scuffle, bad idea. Unfortunately for Rooney, he accidentally stepped on the groin area of one of the Portuguese players. Ronaldo came up to the referee when Rooney was pleading his case and the English striker took it the wrong way and pushed his Manchester United teammate which eventually resulted in Rooney being sent off with a red card.Once the dust settled and Portugal subsequently eliminated England from the World Cup, there was a lot of tension in the clubhouse of Manchester United and all signs pointed towards disaster. Cristiano Ronaldo was convinced that he needed to leave the famous football club since he felt it just couldn’t be the same between Rooney and himself after the World Cup, it was said he had his eyes on Spain’s popular club, Real Madrid.Wayne Rooney saw things a little differently though, he wanted Cristiano to stay and why not, Cristiano is a premier player. Rooney and Sir Alex Ferguson approached the midfielder before he made any rash decisions and eventually convinced him not to leave the club. After all was said and done, Rooney said the reason he got so mad because he didn’t want his United teammate to get involved and when Ronaldo did, he just snapped and disappointed.
As a result of what happened between Cristiano and Rooney, English fans lashed out against Ronaldo and he subsequently lost a lot of his fan base in England. Cristiano was booed and heavily criticized, being blamed for the exit of the English national team. Even with all of this controversy, problems and hatred from English fans that surrounded Cristiano following the aftermath of the World Cup, he responded with an impressive year with Manchester United and an eventual won the hearts of a large number of English fans who were ready to forgive the young man.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s legacy as a footballer has basically just started and there will be many more World Cups and Manchester United matches, but one thing is undeniable, Ronaldo is one of the best in the world and he will be a midfielder to keep your eye on especially playing next to such great football players like Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
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