Ronaldo
Born February 5, 1985, winger Cristiano Ronaldo of the English Premier League club Manchester United signed a $21.24 million contract in 2003 at the age of 18. In that year he was given his first cap while he played for the Portuguese. Cristiano went to the final of the UEFA Euro in 2004, where he delighted his fans when he scored the first international goal of his career.
Christiano Ronaldo was a big scorer in both the club and international scenes in the 2006-2007 season. His also got his first Premier League title and became that league’s best scorer for the season. The next year, Ronaldo he became the FIFPro World Player of the Year and was honored with the Ballon d’Or award. The young man’s career was heading into the stars already.
Maria Dolores dos Santos Averio and Jose Dinis Averiogave named Christiano “Ronaldo” after then-United States President Ronald Regan–but it wasn’t for his leadership skills, rather it was for his acting skills which made him his father’s favorite actor. Ronaldo also has two older sisters and a younger brother.
His early career began at the age of only eight where he played for the amateur team C.F. Andorinha-in 1995, Cristiano signed with CD Nacional, a local club. Overjoyed with his success, the Sporting CP club signed him after a three-day trial run; the amount of the signing has never been released. At the Sporting CP in Portugal, Ronaldo trained at the Alcochete, a footballer’s academy and was the only player ever to play for Sporting’s U-16, U-17, U-18 and B-team. In 2003, the Manchester United players begged for Sir Alex Ferguson to sign him-and so became a footballer and fan favorite.
The first Portuguese player ever to sign with an English team, Cristiano now found himself backed by a talented club. But, he didn’t want the #7 that was so tied in with David Beckham and Eric Cantona; instead, wanting to be his own man, Cristiano took #23. In a 4-0 win over the Bolton Wanderers that year, Cristiano made his club debut in the 60th minute. Then in October of 2005, Christiano scored United’s 1,000th Premier League goal. Fans gave him the vote to take part in his first-ever FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year awards.
In 2006, Ronaldo attained consecutive Barclays Player of the Month awards, only the third player in history to do this since Dennis Bergkamp in 1997 and Robbie Fowler in 1996. Cristiano’s 50th career goal with Manchester United came against rivals Manchester City F.C. when they claimed their first Premier League title in just four years. Again, Ronaldo was voted the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year Award and thought it looked like he might switch forces to play with the Real Madrids, he signed with United in April of 2006 for a cool $31 million a year-he became the highest player in United’s history.
In the 2006-07 season, Cristiano received three top honors including the PFA Players’ Player of the Year, the PFA Young Player of the Year, and the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year. The mischievous Cristiano was banned for three matches in the 2007-08 season but claimed his lesson was learned and he would not let rival team members rattle his performance in the future. In March of 2008, he became team Captain for United and outshined George Best’s forty-year old record of scoring 32 goals in the 1967-68 season; Cristiano scored thirty-five.
Just as it seemed Cristiano might head for the Real Madrid team, he remained committed to United for another year. Scoring is 100th and 101st goals in United’s 5-0 win over Stroke City in November, it seemed Ronaldo was headed for greatness, something most footballers only dream of. To end his season, Ronald accepted Manchester United’s first Ballon d’Or award since George Best won it in 1968. The magnificent Ronaldo finished his season with 446 points-quite the accomplishment for such a young player. We await the 2008-09 season to see more ways Cristiano will wow his fans all over the world.