Born on February 5, 1985, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese soccer superstar. By 2003 — when he was just 16 years old — Manchester paid £12 million (over $14 million U.S. dollars) to sign him, a record fee for a player of his age. In the 2004 FA Cup final, Ronaldo scored Manchester’s first three goals and helped them capture the championship. He set a franchise record for goals scored in 2008, before Real Madrid paid a record $131 million for his services the following year. Among his many accomplishments, he has won a record-tying five Ballon d’Or awards for player of the year, and led Portugal to an emotional victory in the 2016 European Championship. In July 2018, Ronaldo embarked on a new phase of his career by signing with Italian Serie A club Juventus.
Ronaldo was born in São Pedro, Funchal, and grew up in the Funchal parish of Santo António, as the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, a cook, and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener and a part-time kit man.
His second given name, “Ronaldo”, was chosen after then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan.He has one older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia.
Early Life
By the time he was 10 years old, Ronaldo was already recognized as a phenomenon — a kid who ate, slept and drank soccer. “All he wanted to do as a boy was play football,” his godfather, Fernao Sousa, recalled for British reporters, adding, “He loved the game so much he’d miss meals or escape out of his bedroom window with a ball when he was supposed to be doing his homework.”
By his early teens, Ronaldo’s talent and legend had grown considerably. After a stint with Nacional da liha da Madeira, he signed with Sporting Portugal in 2001.
His great-grandmother on his father’s side, Isabel da Piedade, was from São Vicente, Cape Verde. Ronaldo grew up in a Catholic and impoverished home, sharing a room with his brother and sisters.
As a child, Ronaldo played for amateur team Andorinha from 1992 to 1995, where his father was the kit man, and later spent two years with Nacional.
In 1997, aged 12, he went on a three-day trial with Sporting CP, who signed him for a fee of £1,500. He subsequently moved from Madeira to Alcochete, near Lisbon, to join Sporting’s other youth players at the club’s football academy. By age 14, Ronaldo believed he had the ability to play semi-professionally, and agreed with his mother to cease his education in order to focus entirely on football.
While popular with other students at school, he had been expelled after throwing a chair at his teacher, who he said had “disrespected” him.
However, one year later, he was diagnosed with a racing heart, a condition that could have forced him to give up playing football. He underwent an operation in which a laser was used to cauterise the affected area of his heart; discharged from hospital hours after the procedure, he resumed training only a few days later.
At age 16, Ronaldo was promoted from Sporting’s youth team by first-team manager László Bölöni, who was impressed with his dribbling.
He subsequently became the first player to play for the club’s under-16, under-17 and under-18 teams, the B team, and the first team, all within one seasonA year later, on 7 October 2002, Ronaldo made his debut in the Primeira Liga, against Moreirense, and scored two goals in their 3–0 win.
Over the course of the 2002–03 season, his representatives suggested the player to Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier and Barcelona president Joan Laporta. Manager Arsène Wenger, who was interested in signing the winger, met with him at Arsenal’s grounds in November to discuss a possible transfer.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, however, determined to acquire Ronaldo on a permanent move urgently, after Sporting defeated United 3–1 at the inauguration of the Estádio José Alvalade in August 2003.
Initially, United had just planned to sign Ronaldo and then loan him back to Sporting for a year. Having impressed the Manchester United players, however, they urged Ferguson to sign him.
After the game, Ferguson agreed to pay Sporting £12.24 million for what he considered to be “one of the most exciting young players” he had ever seen.
A decade after his departure from the club, in April 2013, Sporting honoured Ronaldo by selecting him to become their 100,000th member.
Contract with Manchester United
In 2001, when Cristiano Ronaldo was just 16 years old, Manchester United paid more than £12 million to sign him — a record fee for a player of his age. Ronaldo had turned heads with a mesmerizing performance with Portugal against Manchester, wowing even his opponents with his footwork and deft skill. He made such an impression that a number of United players asked their manager to try and sign the young player, which the team soon did.
Ronaldo did not disappoint the soccer world. He showed his promise early on in the 2004 FA Cup final, scoring the team’s first three goals and helping them capture the championship. In 2007, Ronaldo signed a five-year, £31 million contract. A year later, Ronaldo again justified his high salary when he put together one of the club’s finest seasons in history, setting a franchise record for goals scored (42), and earning himself the FIFA World Player of the Year honor for 2008. In all, Ronaldo helped steer Manchester United to three premier league titles.
Real Madrid
In 2009, the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid agreed to pay Manchester United a record $131 million for the chance to sign Ronaldo. Ronaldo’s commitment to Manchester United had come under constant question, and speculation swirled that he wanted to play elsewhere, so nobody was all that surprised to see Ronaldo leave.
“I know that they are going to demand a lot of me to be successful at the club and I know that I’m going to have much more pressure than at Manchester United because I was there for many years,” Ronaldo told reporters. “But it means a new challenge and is going to help me be the best footballer.”
Ronaldo went on to compile an impressive list of individual honors and team trophies. In December 2016, he won his fourth Ballon d’Or award as the sport’s player of the year, beating out FC Barcelona’s Messi. Ronaldo’s 2016 wins included the European Championship, Champions League and Club World Cup, plus individual awards from UEFA and France Football magazine. The following year, he claimed a fifth Ballon d’Or to tie the mark held by his longtime rival, Messi.
After dropping hints that his time with Real was coming to an end, Ronaldo confirmed the rumors by signing with Italian Serie A club Juventus in July 2018. The soccer star stood to make an estimated $35 million per year for Juventus, which paid a $140 million transfer fee to his old Spanish club.