The Life of Cristiano Ronaldo Undoubtedly one of the greatest footballers of all time, in full Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, a Portuguese professional football player, was born 5th of February 1985 in Funchal, a city in Madeira Island, Portugal. He is the youngest of four children to the late Jose Dinis Aveiro and Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro. Detailed below highlights his journey to greatness.
His ascension to success and how he got to the pinnacle of football started with his love for football, where he would often skip school, and his mother agreed to this decision so he could focus on his dreams which eventually paid off. In 1992 when he was seven years old, he no longer attended school, and he played for his local club called Clube Futebol Andorinha where his father worked as a kit man.
He played for Clube Futebol Andorinha for three years
During that time word about young, he got the youth coach of Nacional, Fernando Sose who coincidentally was Ronaldo’s godfather. Fernando played a big role in his early career decisions in place of Ronaldo’s father Jose who was especially absent as he drank away his sorrows.
With the help of Fernando in Nacional, Ronaldo will later get signed to the biggest club in Madeira called Maritimo Madeira where they appealed more for Cristiano as they eventually completed the deal with two sets of kits and twenty footballs. And in Nacional Ronaldo’s talent shined through despite having suffered from malnourishment, where later his coaches asked his mother to supply his diet with plenty of fish and meat. Along the line, Fernando would mention Ronaldo’s name to Joao De Freitas who was the president of the Sporting fan club in Madeira at the time. Joao had a good connection with Sporting personnel in Lisbon, mainly Aurelio Pereira who was the lead scout and Aurelio was responsible for bringing legends like Futre, Nan, Figo and Moutinho and he would eventually give 12-year-old Ronaldo a chance to trial for a week. This was because Nacional had a debt worth 25,000 euros to settle the Sporting Lisbon relating to an old transfer and they were struggling to pay so they thought of offering Ronaldo to complete the debt and Aurelio was able to convince the board, flying Cristiano out of Madeira for the first time in his life to Lisbon.
Cristiano Ronaldo: In Lisbon, what caught the eyes of the sporting coaches, especially Aurelio was Cristiano’s undoubtedly amazing talent but most especially his personality, and in the summer of 1997, Aurelio agreed to the permanent stay of up-and-coming superstar Cristiano Ronaldo at the academy. And from 1997-2003, Ronaldo was training at Sporting academy and during those times he endured many hardships. He faced issues with the language as the accent was different from that in Madeira and because of his age he had to be put in a group that was 2 years above his age range. He also struggled in school as it was mandatory for academy players all while being away from his family for a long period. The worst was when he had to go under the knife as it was discovered that he had a racing heart in the year 2000. He later took time off and he came back 3 months later because Cristiano was determined to achieve his dreams and endured all.
It was all worth it in the end as he received his first professional contract in April of 2001 still under Sporting. His agent at the time was Jose Vega and Ronald received a 4-year contract with a monthly salary of 2,000 euros at just 16 years old. But in September of 2001, Cristiano terminated his contract with Jose Vega and signed Jorge Mendes after he convinced Ronaldo and his mother of a promising future by furthering his ambition and signing him to big clubs alongside Viana and Quaresma.
In the following season from 2002-2003
Mario Jardel who was Sporting’s main striker, had intentions to leave, so the director of football Carlos Freitas informed the manager at the time Laszlo Boloni to use Ronaldo as there was no budget for a new player and Boloni agreed. He planned on using Ronaldo as a tricky winger and hyped him up to the media saying “he’ll be better than Eusebio and Figo”. And as expected Ronaldo did not disappoint when he scored his first goal as a professional in a friendly match against Real Batis then he made his professional debut against Inter Milan and Champions League Qualifiers in which Sporting ended up losing. Ronaldo later scored his first official goal in the League against Moreirense in October and entered in the dying minutes against Boavista and managed to score the winning goal at just 16 years old.
And with all these wins this was a start to a promising future for young Cristiano as he began to attract the attention of several European clubs like Valencia who offered 9 million euros, Liverpool and Italian Parma who offered 8 million euros to the player and even Juventus but their Chilean striker Marcelo refused to go to Sporting in a trade deal. Cristiano reacted to the offers by saying he was pleased that many important clubs were interested in him and in the summer of 2003 Ronaldo officially signed with Manchester United after much negotiation between Manchester United, Sporting and Jorge Mendes where Manchester United paid a final price of 12.24 million euros for a five-year contract as Cristiano’s yearly salary went from 24,000 euros to 2 million euros and Ferguson promised to make him a starter for half of the season. And when Ronaldo got to the club, he asked for the number 28 but Sir Alex Ferguson gave him the responsibility of wearing the number 7 shirt which was worn by previous legends George Best, Steve Coppell, Brian Robson, Eric Cantona, and David Beckham.
In the end, Ronaldo would live up to the number seven shirt as he scored 84 top-flight goals for Manchester United from 2003-2009 and won nine trophies. He won the FA Cup at just 18 years old in 2004, two League cups in 2005 and 2008, and three Premier League titles for three consecutive years in 2006, 2007, and 2008. He won a Champions League trophy in 2008, one Club World Cup also in 2008, one Community Shield in 2007, and 2 Ballon d’Or silver awards in 2007 making him part of the legends of Manchester United. However, he would eventually leave United for Real Madrid as they announced on 11th of June 2009 that he had “expressed his desire to exit the club and he was subject to the then most expensive transfer worth 80 million euros (94 million euros today), and he was unveiled at the Santiago Bernabeu on the 6th of July 2009. And during his time, he would win 15 awards in total including two La Liga trophies in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012, another Ballon d’Or silver in 2009 and back to back in 2013 and 2014, and again in 2016 and 2017, two Copa del Rey in 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 and four champions league making him Real Madrid’s all-time top scorer with 450 goals and inspiring them into four titles.
He would eventually leave Real Madrid for Juventus bringing an end to his nine-year stay in a transfer worth 105 million euros, making it the most expensive transfer for an Italian club to ever make and for a player over 30 years old. He claimed to have left Real Madrid because he felt he was “no longer indispensable” within the club and most especially in the eyes of Blancos president Florentino Perez. And in his last season with Real Madrid in 2017-2018, he would go on to win his fifth Ballon d’Or, and his fifth Champions League making him the first player to win the UEFA Champion League five times and scoring two goals in the final against Juventus. His contract with Juventus was for four years and he won Serie A titles, two Supercoppe Italiana, and a Coppa Italia before returning to Manchester United in 2021.
The football legend is still signed to Manchester United as of 2022 and is still making headlines and goals in recent matches. Cristiano Ronald remains one of the top players at Manchester United, and as said by Peter Drury:
“Wreath in red
Restored to this great gallery of the game
A walking work of art
Vintage beyond valuation beyond forgery or imitation
18 years since that trembling teenager of touch and tease
Who first tiptoed onto this storied stage,
Now in his immaculate maturity, CR7 reunited”.
Long Live the great Cristiano Ronald.
