Cristiano Ronaldo Biography

BIRTH: February 5, 1985, Funchal, Portugal

Cristiano Ronaldo Biography : Team, Facts

Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese soccer athlete who is one of the greatest football players of his generation.

Cristiano Ronaldo was born on February 5, 1985 in Madeira, Portugal, to Jose Dinis Aveiro and Maria Dolores dos Santos. His father named him Ronaldo after his favorite actor Ronald Reagan, who was then the U.S. President. Ronaldo has one older brother, Hugo, and two elder sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia. Growing up, his family’s financial condition was unstable, specially due to the fact that his father was an alcoholic. As a result, Ronaldo lost his father due to kidney problems in 2005.

Ronaldo took an interest in football from a very young age. His father used to be a manager at the amateur football club, thus, at the age of eight, Ronaldo began to play football for the very first time. At the age of ten, he signed a contract with the local club called Clube Desportivo Nacional of Madeira. In 1997, he joined one of the biggest clubs in Portugal, called Sporting Clube de Portugal, after he passed a trial.

In 2002 he made his debut with Sporting’s first team. Ronaldo was the only player who played for all levels: under-16, under-17, under-18 and B-team. And after he graduated, he was added to the senior team in 2002.

At the age of seventeen, Ronaldo played his first game for Sporting Lisbon in the Portuguese Super League. Due to his great performance against Manchester United, the English club signed the young man for more than twelve million pounds. He scored the first three goals in the league and also helped his club to win the championship in the 2004 FA Cup final. He became the top athlete in his club and signed a five-year contract with Manchester United. During those five years, Ronaldo helped his club to win three premier league titles.

The Manchester United Club was the stepping stone for Ronaldo. He is known as the first-ever Portuguese player of the English club. On Sir Alex Ferguson’s insistence, he wore the famous number 7 shirt, previously worn by renowned footballers like David Beckham. Ferguson had complete faith in his talent, stating, “We’ve had some fantastic No. 7s, Bryan Robson, Eric Cantona, David Beckham, some wouldn’t want that jersey but his [Ronaldo’s] confidence was high even at 18. When he made his debut as substitute against Bolton he took the place by storm.” Ronaldo became one of the best players in the world, scoring 84 goals in 196 league games for the club.

In 2009, Ronaldo became the most expensive player in the world. After Spain’s Real Madrid paid a whopping $131 million to Manchester United, Ronaldo left his club and joined the new team. From 2009 till today, Ronaldo has broken many records for Real Madrid. He scored forty goals during La Liga 2010-11, the highest number of goals till that year. In the following season he helped his team bag the La Liga championship by scoring a personal-best of 46 goals.

Ronaldo started his international career very early on. He was selected in the under-15 Portugal team. In 2003 Ronaldo first appeared in Portugal’s national team when he played against Kazakhstan. He became a captain of the national team in 2008 and played three World Cups for Portugal. In 2018, Ronaldo performed exceptionally and scored four goals in four games.

Ronaldo is one of the highest paid endorses in sports history with contracts like Nike under his belt. He even released his own brand of products, like shoes and fragrances, called CR7.

Ronaldo has used his extreme wealth for a lot of charitable causes. When the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, he sought to help the victims. He auctioned a number of his things and raised funds for charity. He took part in the campaign to fight against Ebola with other footballers. He donated $8 million to help earthquake victims in Nepal. His most recent project was to fund the construction of a pediatric hospital in Santiago, Chile. He wishes to get involved in more charity projects in the future.

Ronaldo is currently in a relationship with Georgina Rodriguez, with whom he has three children.