Biography
Born to be a star! This seems to be Cristiano Ronaldo’s life motto.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 184 cm in height and 75 kg in weight and he is only 23 years old, but despite his age, he was remarked as one of the most talented football players of his generation and not only. In 2007, he won both the English Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year awards. The same year he earned also the World Player of the Year award.
And that was only the beginning… In 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo won the English PFA Player of the Year award again, but also the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year.
Cristiano Ronaldo, Manchester United’s young star, started his football career simply because he felt he could become a really though footballer. When Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February 1985 on the small island of Madeira, Portugal, no one would have guessed that he will become this country’s next football star!
Madeira was not a rich land, but Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t need expensive tools to start playing football. The poor dusty streets of his home-island witnessed the raising of Cristiano Ronaldo, who received his name after Ronald Reagan, the US president his father admired so much.
It is said that by the age of 12, Cristiano Ronaldo became the best football player from Madeira, as he was able to play his football against full-grown players. He drew the big Portuguese football clubs’ attention and he eventually chose to play for Sporting Lisbon, the club he supported as a child.
2002/2003: Sporting Lisbon
Thus, he was only 17 years old when he was asked to play against Moreirense. This game simply launched Cristiano Ronaldo’s international football career, as he scored two goals, which gave him a dream debut, a lot of fans, as well as a his “passport” to Manchester United.
After he was first spotted by Liverpool F.C., Manchester United became interested in the young player after Sporting Lisbon had beat the British team in the inauguration of the Alvalade XXI stadium in Lisbon.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the first player in Sporting Lisbon history to play for the Under-16, Under-17, Under-18, B and A teams within a season. He was seen as the Portuguese club’s future, but Cristiano Ronaldo’s own future was to develop somewhere away from Portugal, Lisbon and Sporting.
2003/2004: Manchester United
Starting season 2003/2004, Cristiano Ronaldo left Sporting Lisbon for Manchester United, as coach Sir Alex Ferguson realized after the summer of 2003 that he wanted Cristiano Ronaldo for his team. David Beckham had just left Manchester for Real Madrid, so the British team needed a right-sided midfielder.
Manchester paid £12.24 million for Cristiano Ronaldo over two seasons, in two equal payments. He became the most expensive teenage signing in Britain, as well as Manchester United’s first Portuguese player.
Cristiano Ronaldo received the No. 7 shirt and made his debut as a 60th minute substitute in a game against Bolton Wanderers, when he had a hand in two of the goals, and won an unconverted penalty. The Portuguese player received lots of ovations the next day as one of the best players of Manchester United. He was even compared to George Best.
Cristiano Ronaldo proved to be a good acquisition for Manchester. He matured very much during his first year at Manchester and he also became a regular in his country’s national first team squad.
2004/2005 and 2005/2006: Manchester United
In October 2005, he scored the 1000th Premier League goal for his new team. During the same season, on 26 February 2006, Ronaldo in the Carling Cup Final against Wigan in the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff and scored his 10th goal of that season. The Portuguese player received the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year 2005 award, which is entirely voted by fans. He was also ranked on the No. 20 position in the FIFA Player of the Year 2005 standings.
In 2006, despite a row between him and Ruud van Nistelrooy regarding their roles at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo signed a new deal with the British team that will keep him in the Great Britain until 2010.
2006/2007: Manchester United
By December 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo became one of Manchester United’s most important players. He scored his 50th goal for this team in the game against Manchester City, a goal that decided Manchester United’s fate, helping them to claim the Premier League title for the first time in 4 years.
At the end of season 2006/2007, similarly to other times, rumors started to spread, telling about Cristiano Ronaldo’s being unsettled at Manchester and wanting to play at Real Madrid. It also said that Real Madrid would be willing to pay no less than £54 million for Ronaldo. However, in April 2007, the Portuguese player signed a five-year, £120,000-a-week deal with Manchester, becoming this way the highest-paid player in the football club’s history.
The 2006/2007 season was for Ronaldo a period that brought him many significant awards and prizes. He earned a place in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year, the PFA Fan’s Player of the Year, the Portuguese Footballer of the Year, the Football Writers’ Association Award and so on.
2007/2008: Manchester United
However, the same season featured also several diving incidents involving Cristiano Ronaldo. He was criticized by Middlesbrough F.C.’s manager Gareth Southgate for diving. Then, on 4 February 2007, a match against Tottenham Hotspur F.C. caught the Portuguese player in another diving controversy.
From time to time, Cristiano Ronald has also had problems with his temper during games. One such problem took place during a game against Portsmouth in the season 2007/2008, when he was sent off for an alleged headbutt of Richard Hughes. He was banned for the next three games, but he came back in the first game following the ban, when he scored the only goal of a Champions League away game against Sporting Lisbon, his first football club.
On 12 January 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first hat trick for Manchester United, during a game against Newcastle United. Scoring with a free kick in the 49th minute and then in the 70th and 88th minute, he brought his team up to the top of English Premier League table.
On 19 March 2008, Cristiano Ronaldo, 23 years old, eclipsed George Best’s 40-year-old Manchester United record of the most goals scored by midfielder in one season: 32 goals in the 1967/1968 season. Just a few days later, it was reported that Real Madrid offered to pay a world-record £100 million for Ronaldo. The rumors related to Real Madrid’s interest in Cristiano Ronald are still spreading, but the young Portuguese player said he would talk about this after UEFA EURO 2008.
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