CHRISTIANO RONALDO (CR7): THE LION OF MADEIRA

"As I said am not giving up my place for free. 2026 world cup we'll be there". 

                                                       Ronaldo

"We can clearly see that FIFA hates Ronaldo, I do not know how Ronaldo won 5 Ballon d'Ors in the era of corrupted FIFA. Ronaldo winning 5 Ballon d'Ors is like winning 50 Ballon d'Ors as we can see there, they do politics and they favour only one person everytime and criteria also changes every year only for that person". (Frank Lampard).

      Christiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al Nasser and the Portugal national team. He was born on February 5, 1985. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Ronaldo has won 5 Ballon d'Or awards, a record three UEFA Men's Player of the Year Award, and four European golden shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 34 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations league.

Ronaldo holds the record for most appearances(183), goals(140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals(128) and international appearances (205). He is one of the few players to have made 1,200 professional career appearances, the most by an outfield player and has scored over 850 official senior career goals for club and country making him the top goal scorer of all time.

     Christiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February, 1985 in the Sao Paulo parish of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira and grew up in the nearby Parish of Santo Antonio. He is the fourth and youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros daAveiro, who worked as a cook in the hospitality industry and a cleaning woman, and Jose Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener at the Junta de Freguesia of Santo Antonio and part time kit man for football club Andorinha. His great grandmother on his father's side Isabel da Piedade, was from the island of Sao Vincente, Cape Verde.

Ronaldo was named after doctor and US President Ronald Reagan whom his father was a fan of.

His mother revealed that she wanted to abort him due to poverty, his father's alcoholism and having too many children already, but her refused to perform the procedure, as abortions were illegal in Portugal as at that time. Ronaldo grew up in an impoverished Roman Catholic home, sharing a room with all his siblings.

                    CLUB CAREER

As a child Ronaldo played for Andorinha from 1992 to 1993, where his father was the kitman and later spent two years with Nacional. In 1997, aged 12, he went on a three day trial with Sporting CP, who signed him for a fee of £1,500. He subsequently moved from Madeira to Lisbon to join Sporting CP's youth system. By age 14 while struggling with his school duties and responsibilities in Escola EB2 de Telheiras, his school in the Telheiras area of Lisbon, Ronaldo believed he had the ability to play semi professionally and agreed with his mother and his tutor at Sporting CP, Leonel Pontes to cease his education to focus entirely on football.

With a troubled life as a student and living in Lisbon area away from his Madeira family, he did not complete schooling beyond the 6th grade. While popular with the students at school, he had been expelled after throwing a chair at his teacher who he said had disrespect him.

One year later he was diagnosed with tachycardia, a condition that could have forced him to give up playing football. Ronaldo underwent heart surgery where a laser was used to cauterize multiple cardiac pathways into one, altering his resting heart rate.

He was discharged from the hospital hours after the procedure and resumed training a few days later. In 2021, Christiano Ronaldo's mother Dolores Aveiro stated in an interview for Sporting CP's official television channel (Sporting TV) that her son Ronaldo would have been a bricklayer if he hadn't become a professional footballer player. Hmmm.

                  SENIOR CAREER 

Ronaldo began his senior career in Sporting CP before signing with Manchester United in 2003, winning the FA cup in his first season. He would go on to win three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League and the FIFA Club World Cup; at age 23 he won his first Ballon d'Or. Ronaldo was the subject of the most expensive association football transfer when he signed for Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth €94 million (£80m). 

He became a key contributor and formed an attacking trio with Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale which was integral to the team winning four Champions Leagues from 2014-2018 including La Decima. During this period, he won back to back Ballon d'Ors in 2013 and 2014, and again in 2016 and 2017, and was runner up three times behind Lionel Messi, his perceived career rival. He also became the club's all time top goal scorer and all time top scorer in the Champions League, and finished as the competition's top scorer for six consecutive seasons between 2012 and 2018. 

With Real Madrid, Ronaldo won four Champions Leagues, two La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey, two UEFA Super Cups and three Club World Cups. In 2018, he signed for Juventus in a transfer worth an initial €100 million (£88m), the most expensive transfer for an Italian club and for a player over 30 years old. He won two Serie A titles, two Supercoppa Italian trophies and Coppa Italia, became the inaugural Serie A Most Valuable Player and became the first footballer to finish as top scorer in English, Spanish and Italian Leagues. 

He returned to Manchester United in 2021, finishing his only full season as the club's top scorer before his contract was terminated in 2022. In 2023, he signed for Al Nasser.

            INTERNATIONAL DEBUT

Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in 2003 at the age of 18 and has since earned more than 200 caps, making him both the country's and history's most capped player of all time recognized by Guinness World Records. With more than 100 goals at International level, he is also the sports all time top goal scorer. Ronaldo has played in and scored at eleven major tournaments, he scored his first international goal at Euro 2004 where he helped Portugal reach the final.

He assumed captaincy of the national team in July 2008. In 2015, Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation. The following year he led Portugal to first major tournament title at Euro 2016 and received the Silver Boot as the second highest goal scorer of the tournament.

This achievement would see him receive his fourth Ballon d'Or. He also led them to victory in the inaugural UEFA Nations league in 2019, receiving the top goal scorer award in the finals and later received the Golden Boot as top scorer of Euro 2020.

       One of the world's most marketable and famous athletes. Ronaldo was ranked the world's highest paid athlete by Forbes in 2016, 2017, and 2023 and the world's most famous athlete by ESPN from 2016 to 2019. Time included him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. He is the first footballer and the third sportsman to earn US$1billion in his career.

In all, it is sufficient for me to say that Christiano Ronaldo wouldn't have achieved this feat in his entire career without hardwork, perseverance and consistency. It was said one time at the peak of his career that he was asked how he trained to become a super man in his career, his answer, "I train 5 hours after the normal 2 hours club training everyday ". Intense isn't it, to become the best in your field it's not just about the training cuz some can train for five hours once or twice a week but it's about consistency. To become that Great Writer of repute that you admire so much, you have to give your all, consistently.