Portuguese Professional Footballer – Cristiano Ronaldo (Biography)

Football player Cristiano Ronaldo is well-known and associated with the game. He was raised in a low-socioeconomic environment and started playing football at a young age. He was selected for the international football team at the age of 18. He is the highest-paid football player in both global and football-related history. He receives a $40 million base income each year in addition to an additional $30 million through endorsements.

Early Life
On February 5, 1985, Jose Dinis Aveiro, who worked as a gardener in the township, gave birth to Cristiano Ronaldo in Portugal. In addition to his parents, Ronaldo has a brother and two sisters. He is the oldest of his siblings. His mother’s name was Eva Maria Dos Santos, and she frequently cooked for other people’s homes.

The youngest of Cristiano Ronaldo’s four children is Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. But Ronaldo has never made public who his son’s mother is. Before 2015, he dated Irina Shayk. After their relationship ended, he started seeing Georgina Rodriguez, who would later become his fiancée, after 2015.

Ronald Reagan, a former US president, was the inspiration for Cristiano Ronaldo’s given name by his father. Ronaldo mentioned in a few interviews that he was raised in a low-income household and once shared a small room with his brothers while living in a small hamlet. Ronaldo’s mother urged him to pursue his dream after learning that he wanted to play football when he told his family. Ronaldo’s mother’s support has helped him become a brilliant football player today.

Ronaldo was raised in a modest, tin-roofed house with a view of the seaside in a neighborhood that was primarily made up of working class residents. Ronaldo’s father, who was an equipment manager at a boy’s club, introduced him to the sport of soccer. His father frequently drank too much, which had a negative impact on his early life. Ronaldo’s mother worked as a chef and a housekeeper to help feed the kids and keep the family afloat.

While Ronaldo was a member of Manchester United in 2005, his father passed away from alcohol-related kidney issues, and in 2007, his mother battled breast cancer. Ronaldo found the first particularly difficult because he and his father had become close.

Ronaldo was already known as a phenomenon – a 10-year-old who lived and breathed soccer – by that point. His godfather, Fernao Sousa, recounted for British reporters that “all he wanted to do as a youngster was play football,” adding that “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.”

Ronaldo had a cardiac problem that required surgery when he was 15 years old, but he recovered fully and was only temporarily sidelined. He began his career with the Madeira-based Clube Desportivo Nacional before switching to Sporting Clube de Portugal (often known as Sporting Lisbon), where he played for several of the club’s minor squads before making his first-team Sporting debut in 2002. At 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 meters), Ronaldo was a tall player and a powerful athlete. He switched from being a right winger to become a forward with a free-flowing attacking style. He was able to hypnotize his opponents with a sleight of foot that created enough room for gaps in their defenses.

Soccer Career
Ronaldo joined for English powerhouse Manchester United in 2003 following a great season with Sporting that attracted the interest of Europe’s top football clubs. He became famous right away and was instantly considered as one of the top forwards in the league. His best year with United was the 2007–08 campaign, during which he scored 42 League and Cup goals and won the Golden Shoe award for being Europe’s top scorer with 31 League goals. Ronaldo won the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Player of the Year award for his outstanding 2007–08 campaign after helping United win the Champions League in May 2008. Additionally, under his leadership, United made it to the 2009 Champions League final, where they were defeated to FC Barcelona

Soon after, Ronaldo was traded to Real Madrid of Spain for a then-record transfer fee of £80 million (about $131 million). This club had been linked to Ronaldo for some time. With his new squad, his goal-scoring prowess continued, and during the 2010–11 season, he scored the most goals (40) in La Liga history (his record was broken the following season by his rival Lionel Messi of Barcelona). Ronaldo scored a career-high 46 goals during the La Liga season in 2011–12, helping Real Madrid win the league title. He won his second FIFA World Player of the Year title in 2013 after tallying 66 goals over 56 games for Real Madrid and the Portuguese national team (the FIFA World Player of the Year was renamed the FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010).

In 2014, Ronaldo won another Ballon d’Or trophy after scoring 52 goals in 43 games and helping Madrid win the Champions League. He scored 48 goals in 2014–15 to lead La Liga in scoring. In October 2015, Ronaldo scored his 324th goal for Real to surpass Pele as the club’s all-time best scorer. He contributed to Real winning a record 11th Champions League championship in 2015–16 with his 35 La Liga goals, and in December 2016 he was awarded his fourth Ballon d’Or of his career in recognition of his achievements. In 2016–17, Ronaldo led Real to the La Liga and Champions League titles in addition to scoring 42 goals for the club in all competitions. This performance earned him his fifth Ballon d’Or prize in his professional career. He scored 44 goals in 44 appearances in 2017–18, and Real won the Champions League for the third consecutive year. He signed a four-year deal worth €112 million (about $132 million) with Juventus, a dominant team in Italy, in July 2018.

He scored 311 goals in 292 games to cap his Real Madrid career. He scored 28 goals in his debut season with Juventus, which was the fewest domestic goals he had scored since his final year with Manchester United, and the dominant team won the Italian league for the seventh consecutive year.

He was a significant contributor to Portugal’s fourth-place World Cup finish in 2006, and in 2008, he was named the team’s full-time captain. His outstanding performance in 2012 propelled Portugal to the European Championship semifinals, where they were defeated by rival Spain in a game determined by a shootout. Ronaldo entered the 2014 World Cup fresh off of winning his second award for world player of the year, but he struggled throughout the competition and Portugal as a whole struggled during a group-stage elimination.

He assisted Portugal in winning the 2016 European Championship, the nation’s first major international tournament victory, despite only participating briefly in the match due to a knee injury he had suffered earlier in the game. Ronaldo had an outstanding World Cup, scoring four goals in four games to help Portugal reach the knockout round before losing its opening game against a Uruguay team known for its powerful defense.

Popularity
In addition to being one of the most well-known sportsmen off the field, multiple studies on athlete popularity revealed that Ronaldo was, at the height of his playing career, the most famous athlete in the entire world. Ronaldo became one of the highest-paid endorsers in sports history thanks to his immense popularity, and in November 2016 he became the third person to sign a “lifetime” contract with the sportswear firm Nike (joining basketball greats LeBron James and Michael Jordan).

He also created his own popular “CR7” range of goods, which featured shoes, underwear, and fragrances. A legal dispute that surfaced in June 2017 was centered on Ronaldo’s enormous marketability. In that same month, prosecutors filed a complaint accusing Ronaldo of disguising his image-rights revenue in Spain from 2011 to 2014 in order to defraud the Spanish government of €14.7 million ($16.5 million). Ronaldo was accused of underestimating his revenue from the sale and licensing of his image rights and the associated tax liabilities, but he vigorously refuted all claims. However, he agreed to a two-year prison sentence with a suspension in June 2018 and paid the Spanish government $21.8 million ($18.8 million) to resolve the matter.

Achievements Of Ronaldo
• Ronaldo was the 2007–08 season’s European Golden Shoe winner.
• His 46 goals helped Real Madrid win the La Liga for the first time in four years.
• The record for the most goals scored in a single Champions League campaign belongs to him.
• He currently holds the record for reaching 300 goals in La Liga the quickest.
• Ronaldo is the only player to win league titles in all three countries England, Spain, and Italy.

Followers On Social Media
Ronaldo became the first athlete to have more than 200 million Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook followers. As of January 2022, he had a total of 641 million followers on all platforms. Compared to other athletes on the platform, his Facebook profile in particular has the most followers. Messi has 105 million more fans than Ronaldo, and The Rock, a non-footballer, has 59 million fewer than Ronaldo, who has a fan base of almost 150 million.

Also, Ronaldo is the most-followed person on Instagram, with 395 million followers. After Selena Gomez, Ariana Grande, and The Rock, he is now second followed on the official Instagram account.