Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, born 5 February 1985, commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or a forward for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and serves as captain of the Portuguese national team. Ronaldo is the most expensive player in football history after moving from Manchester United to Real Madrid in a transfer deal worth £80 million (€94m, US$132m). In addition, his contract with Real Madrid, in which he is to be paid £11 million per year over the following six years, makes him the highest-paid football player in the world. Ronaldo holds the distinction of being the first player to win the FIFA Puskás Award, an honour handed by FIFA to the best goal of the year. He scored that goal from 40 yards out, against Porto in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final match, while still playing for Manchester United.Ronaldo began his career as a youth player for Andorinha, where he played for two years, then moved to Nacional. In 1997, he made a move to Portuguese giants Sporting CP. Ronaldo's precocious talent caught the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and he signed the 18-year-old for £12.24 million in 2003. The following season, Ronaldo won his first club honour, the FA Cup, and reached the Euro 2004 final with Portugal, in which tournament he scored his first international goal.
In 2008, Ronaldo won the Champions League with United, and was named player of the tournament. He was named the FIFPro World Player of the Year and the FIFA World Player of the Year, in addition to becoming Manchester United's first Ballon d'Or winner in 40 years.Three-time Ballon d'Or winner Johan Cruyff said in an interview on 2 April 2008, "Ronaldo is better than George Best and Denis Law, who were two brilliant and great players in the history of United."
Early life
Ronaldo was born on 5 February 1985 in Santo António, a neighbourhood of Funchal, Madeira, the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, a cook, and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener.His second given name, "Ronaldo", was chosen after then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan, who was his father's favourite actor. He has one older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia.
Personal life
Ronaldo's father, José Dinis Aveiro, died of an alcoholism-related liver condition in September 2005 at age 52 when Ronaldo was 20. Ronaldo's mother and Manchester United coach have stated that he does not drink alcohol as a result, and he has received libel damages over a Daily Mirror article that reported him drinking heavily in a nightclub while recovering from an injury in July 2008.
Ronaldo's autobiography, titled Moments, was published in December 2007.Along with one of his sisters, Ronaldo opened a fashion boutique under the name "CR7" (his initials and shirt number). There are currently two CR7 store locations, both of which are in Portugal; one in Lisbon and the other in Madeira.
On 9 June 2010, Madame Tussauds London unveiled Ronaldo's waxwork as part of the build-up to the World Cup. Ronaldo joins fellow footballers Steven Gerrard, Pelé and David Beckham at the event's venue.
Ronaldo announced that he had become a father on 3 July 2010. His official Facebook and Twitter pages reference the birth of his son and request privacy. The child, named Cristiano Ronaldo Junior, who was born to an anonymous mother, is in full custody of Ronaldo and under the care of his mother and sisters.
On August 2010, Ronaldo hit 10 million fans on Facebook and in doing so made history by becoming the first non-US personality ever to achieve that kind of success on the social networking site.
Since the start of 2010 he has been dating Russian model Irina Shayk.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Full name: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
Date of birth:5 February 1985 (1985-02-05) (age 26)
Place of birth: Funchal, Madeira, Portugal
Height: 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Playing position: Forward / Winger
Club information
Current: club Real Madrid
Number: 7
Youth career: 1993–1995 Andorinha 1995–1997 Nacional 1997–2001 Sporting CP
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2001–2003 Sporting CP 25 (3)
2003–2009 Manchester United 196 (84)
2009– Real Madrid 52 (50)
National team‡
2001–2002 Portugal U17 9 (6)
2003 Portugal U20 5 (1)
2002–2003 Portugal U21 6 (3)
2004 Portugal U23 3 (1)
2003– Portugal 80 (26)
ref:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristiano_Ronaldo
