Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo was born and raised in a working class neighborhood on the

Portuguese island of Madeira. He officially began playing football in 2003 for Clube

Futebol Andorinha de Santo Antonio. By the age of ten, the islands more prominent

teams began expressing interest in the phenom. Ronaldo joined Nacional da Ilha

da Madeira, where he continued his meteoric rise and one year later was on the

move to Lisbon, where he signed for Sporting in 2001. He is still the only player in

club history to be promoted by four academy teams until debuting with the first team

in one season. Ronaldo scored a brace in his first match against Deportivo

Moreirense and went on to win the Superliga that same year as a mainstay One

season later he made his European debut in a Champions League qualifier against

Inter.

The turning point of his career was a brilliant performance during a friendly against

Manchester United in 2001. Ferguson later admitted that his players couldn’t stop

talking about Ronaldo. Even on the flight back to England, players of the likes of

Roy Keane and Van Nistelrooy insisted that the manager sign Cristiano. The official

announcement was made one week later after ManU paid £12.24 million for his

services; a record transfer fee for an adolescent.

Ronaldo proved his quality during his first year in England in the 2004 FA Cup final;

he scored the first of his team’s three goals, which eventually gave them the trophy.

He became one of the best young players in the world during his second campaign

in England and earned FIFPro’s Special Young Player of the Year award. He

entered Manchester United history on 29 October 2005 by scoring the team’s

1,000nd goal in the Premier League. Ronaldo netted 17 strikes the following year,

becoming the second top-scorer in the Premiership. He also made the

championship’s 2006/07 Team of the Year alongside six other ManU players.

Cristiano Ronaldo perfected his quality in the following years and also managed to

stand out for his intelligence and great physique. He became the top-scoring right

winger in Manchester United’s history in March 2008, breaking legendary George

Best’s 32-goal record of the 1967/68 campaign. This was the first of a series of

achievements, which also included winning the Community Shield, the Premiership

title and the Champions League trophy. On a personal level, he won the Ballon

d’Or, the Golden Boot, the FIFA World Player award, the FIFPro award, the UEFA

Club Forward of the Year distinction, and became the top-scorer of the Champions

League.

At just 24, Ronaldo is the second captain on the Portuguese national team behind

Nuno Gomes. He made his international debut on 20 August 2003 against

Kazakhstan and represented his country in the 2004 Olympic Games of Athens.

Scolrai didn’t count on him much at the start of the Euro 2004, despite the insistence

of fans and journalists, but he eventually became a prominent player on the team,

which lost the final 1-0 against Greece. Ronaldo played at a very high level in the

2006 Germany World Cup, but the team lost against France in the semis and

against Germany in the fight for third place. Portugal lost against Germany again in

the quarterfinals of the Euro 2008.