Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February 1985 in Madeira, Portugal. He plays as a forward for Italian club Juventus and the Portugal national team. Commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo or CR7, he is regarded as one of the best players of this generation. He has won the FIFA Ballon d’Or five times, two Ballon D'or's behind by his arch rival Lionel Messi. Known for his pace and physicality, Ronaldo plays on the left wing, but can play as a striker as well. The Portuguese international has scored goals 698 from 933 club appearances till date making him arguably the greatest footballer of all time.

BACKGROUND

Born in the Funchal district of Sao Pedro, Ronaldo started playing football with local club Andorinha FC at the age of 7. He signed with the youth side of first division team Sporting CP in 1997. He was diagnosed with racing heart condition which could have halted his footballing career when he was 15 After a successful surgery, he was able to play again and was promoted to the senior team at the age of 16. He became the first player to play for the U16, U17, U18, the B team and first team of the club in one season.

DEBUT

Ronaldo made his debut for Sporting CP in the Primeira Liga against Moreirense on 7 October 2002. He scored a brace with Sporting winning 3-0. He made 25 appearances and scored five goals for the club in the 2002-03 season. In a friendly match between Sporting and Manchester United in August 2003, Ronaldo contributed greatly to help the Portuguese club defeat United 3-1. He impressed manager Sir Alex Ferguson and other United players with his pace and dribbling skills.

CLUB CAREER

Ronaldo signed with English club Manchester United in 2003 for a transfer fee of £12.24 million, becoming the first Portuguese signing for United and the most expensive teenager in English football history.

RISE TO GLORY

Ronaldo joined Spanish giants Real Madrid in the 2009/10 season in a then world record transfer fee of £80 million. He was given the number 9 jersey and made his La Liga debut on 29 August 2009, against Deportivo La Coruna. Madrid won 3–2 and Ronaldo converted a penalty. He kept up his form and scored in four consecutive matches. Ronaldo has scored 450 throughout his career for real madrid. In the summer of 2018, Ronaldo left Real Madrid to sign for Italian giants Juventus. After spending three years at Italy, The Portuguese icon returned back to Old Trafford last season and the whole fans were in an ecstatic mode. After parting with eal madrid ronaldo decided to join juventus with a dowry of 100 million euros, after 3 seasons with juventus, cristiano ronaldo returned to the club that had raised his name manchester united and after 2 seasons, surprisingly manchester united terminated his contract and cooperation with ronaldo. after a long debate where ronaldo will anchor, suddenly a fairly high offer appears from the saudi arabian club Al-Nassr with a salary of 250 million euros per year, of course this is very surprising but this is very profitable for both parties and of course ronaldo agrees. ronaldo now officially joins Al-Nassr.