CRISTIANO RONALDOFOOTBALL PLAYER

CRISTIANO RONALDO• Cristiano Ronaldo born in 5 February 1985,known as Cristiano Ronaldo,is

aPortuguese professional footballer who plays for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team. He is a forward and serves as captain for Portugal. By the age of 22, Ronaldo had received Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. The following year, in 2008, he won his first Ballon d'Or and FIFA World Player of the Year awards. He followed this up by winning the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2013 and 2014. In September 2015, Ronaldo scored his 500th senior career goal for club and country. Often ranked as the best player in the world and rated by some in the sport as the greatest of all time, Ronaldo is the first Portuguese footballer to win three FIFA/Ballons d'Or, and the first player to win four European Golden Shoe awards.

Early Life

• Ronaldo was born 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.His great-grandmother Isabel da Piedade was from Cape Verde.

Club Career

• 1) Sporting CP • 2) Manchester United• 3) Real Madrid

Manchester United

• 2003-04: Adapting to England• 2004-06: Developing years• 2006-07: First Premier League title• 2007-08: Champions League success• 2008-09: World Player of the Year and final season

Real Madrid

• 2009-10: Ariiving in Spain• 2010-11: Breaks La Liga seasons goalscoring record• 2011-12: First La Liga title• 2012-13: Fastest to reach 200 goals for Madrid• 2013-14: Champions League season goalscoring record

International Career

• Cristiano started his international youth career in 2001 being part of the under-15 Portugal team, amassing 34 youth caps and scoring 18 goals overall.Apart from the under-15 team, Ronaldo also represented the under-17, under-20, under-21, and the under-23 national sides, scoring for each team.Ronaldo earned his first senior cap for Portugal in a 1–0 victory against Kazakhstan on 20 August 2003.

2004-05: Early success

• Ronaldo was called up for Euro 2004, scoring his first international goal in a 2–1 group stage loss to eventual champions Greece and scoring again in a 2–1 semi-final win over the Netherlands.He was featured in the UEFA Euro All-Star Team of this competition, providing two assists, and scoring two goals.

Ronaldo also represented Portugal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, scoring a goal in the tournament, although the Portuguese Olympic football squad was eliminated in the first round, finishing bottom of their group with three points after 4–2 defeats to eventual semi-finalists Iraq and quarter-finalists Costa Rica.

2006-07: World Cup and first captaincy stint

• Ronaldo was the second-highest scorer in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification in the European zone with seven goals,and scored his first World Cup goal against Iran (2–0) with a penalty kick in Portugal's second match in the group stage.

2008–10: Permanent captaincy

• Ronaldo scored eight goals in Portugal's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying campaign,behind Poland's Ebi Smolarek, but finished with only one goal in the tournament. When Portugal's squad for the tournament was announced, Ronaldo was given the number 7 shirt for the first time in a major tournament.He was named man of the match in the group match against the Czech Republic, in which Portugal won 3–1.Portugal were eliminated in the quarter-finals with a 3–2 loss against eventual finalists Germany.

2011–13: Individual and Euro success

• Ronaldo scored seven goals in Portugal's UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying campaign, including two strikes against Bosnia in the play-offs for the tournament, and finished behind Germany's Miroslav Klose and the Netherlands' Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (not including the play-offs round). Portugal were drawn in Group B with Netherlands, Denmark and Germany, which was widely referred to as the "group of death" of the tournament.In an interview with Kicker Magazine, Ronaldo stated that: "I will only be fully content with my career when I have lifted a trophy with Portugal.

2014: World Cup and Portugal's record goalscorer

• On 17 October 2012, Ronaldo won his 100th cap for the Portugal national team in a World Cup qualification match against Northern Ireland (1–1) at Porto's Estádio do Dragão. He became the third youngest European ever to reach that figure in the process, after Germany's Lukas Podolski and Estonia's Kristen Viikmäe. On 14 August 2013, Ronaldo scored his 40th goal for Portugal in a 1–1 friendly draw against the Netherlands.On 6 September 2013, Ronaldo netted his first international hat-trick in a 15-minute spell in the second half at Windsor Park against Northern Ireland (4–2) in a World Cup qualification match to become Portugal's second-highest scorer ahead of Eusébio. With his goals against Northern Ireland, Ronaldo also established a personal record, since it was the first time that he scored in three consecutive matches with Portugal.