Biography
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on the 5th February 1985, in Funchal (Portugal). Ronaldo has one brother, Hugo, and two sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia, all older then Cristiano. Born to parents Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro and José Dinis Aveiro, Ronaldo was named after the President of America at the time, Ronald Reagan, who was really admired by Cristiano’s father.
Ronaldo’s talent to play football became clear at a very young age, according to his family, they soon realised he had “something special”, however they never thought Ronaldo would have a chance in the world of football, mainly because he was from Madeira, a small island, far away from Portugal’s “big teams”. At the time, Ronaldo was playing at “Andorinha”, a small team that is father worked at.
Soon Ronaldo’s hability was recognized by Madeira’s biggest teams, and both Nacional and Marítimo tried to get a deal with the young player. Cristiano decided to play for Nacional, because his godfather was in the team’s direction at the time.
By the age of twelve, Ronaldo had already proven his value, and some of the biggest teams in Portugal were interested in sign him. Porto, Boavista and Sporting made offers, Ronaldo went to Sporting not only because that was the his mother supported, and also because it had a really good academy (Luís Figo was formed there). To play in Sporting, Ronaldo had to move alone to Lisbon, where he had an hard time. He have always been really close to his family, so it was hard to be away from them, speccialy because Madeira’s accent is really different from Lisbon’s, so people made fun of him.
At the age of 17, Ronaldo made his debut at Sporting’s A team, against Moreirense, and only a few months later he made his move to Old Trafford with a £12.2m deal>. There, he wanted the number 28 (the same one he had at Sporting), however Ferguson, who had big plans for him, insisted he should take the mitical 7 shirt. He made his debut for Manchester United as a 60th minute substitute against Bolton at Old Trafford.
Ronaldo’s career in Portugal international team was also impressive, he played several times for Portugal’s young teams, making his A team debut in August 2003, against Kazakhstan. In the opening match of Euro 2004, Ronaldo scored Portugal’s only goal in their 2-1 loss to Greece. During the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo had an incident with Wayne Rooney, as he was blammed for Rooney being sent off in the Portugal vs England match.
After this, the british press (and some fans) atacked Ronaldo and tried to blame him for England’s failure in the 2006 World Cup, which made Ronaldo want to leave Manchester United and England, but in the end he decided to stay.
This decision was proved correct, as 2007/2008 became a quite remarkable season in the young genious’ career: he eclipsed George Best’s 40-year-old United record of the most goals scored by a midfielder in one season, was nominated 2007FWA Footballer of the Year, 2007 Portuguese Footballer of the Year, 2007 PFA Player of the Year among many other awards.
Cristiano Ronaldo is a genious football player, a talented young man who can play anywhere in the front and still show his impressive skills, an artist who spread art in football stadiums.
