Ronaldo Soccer

Born February 5, 1985, winger Cristiano Ronaldo of the English Premier League club Manchester United signed a $21.24 million contract in 2003 at the age of 18. In that year he was given his first cap while he played for the Portuguese. Cristiano went to the final of the UEFA Euro in 2004, where he delighted his fans when he scored the first international goal of his career.

Ronaldo was on the global rise scoring often at both club and international levels and received his first Premier League title in the 2006-07 season. As the Premier League's top scorer, Ronaldo was named the FIFPro World Player of the Year in 2008. Also in 2008, Ronaldo achieved the Ballon d'Or award-quite the achievement for such a young soccer player.

As the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Averio and Jose Dinis Averio, his second given name, "Ronaldo," was an obvious choice to his father naming him after the then US president Ronald Regan, but not for his presidency, Regan was Ronaldo's father's favorite actor. Cristiano has two older sisters and one older brother.

Ronaldo began playing for the amateur team C.F. Andorinha when he was just eight years old. Local football club CD Nacional took him in 1995, and for them he played so amazingly well that the Sporting CP club let him play for them for three days and afterward they signed him to a contract for an unknown signing bonus. At Portugal's Sporting CP, Cristiano attended the Alcochete, a renowned footballer's academy. He would go on to become the only footballer in history to play for the Sporting CP club's U-16, U-17, U-18, and B-teams. After much pleading from many of his players and after seeing his talent for himself, Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson signed him to a contract. He became an instant hit with the fans.

With a team behind him, Cristiano, was the very first Portuguese player to sign with an English team and he requested number 23, not wanting the number 7 tied to such players as Eric Cantona or David Beckham, among others; there was sense in Cristiano to be his own player and that he was. His team debut was a 60th-minute substitute winning 4.0 over the Bolton Wanderers. He scored United's thousandth Premier League goal in October of 2005 and fans voted him to enter his first FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year awards in that same year.

Then in the 2005-2006 season Ronaldo did something that only two footballers, Robbie Fowler and Dennis Bergkamp in the mid-1990s, had ever done before: he won consecutive Barclays Player of the Month awards. Furthermore, Crristiano's 50th career goal helped Manchester United defeat rivals Manchester City F.C. to take their first Premier League title in four years. Thrilled with him yet again, the fans gave Ronaldo the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year Award again. But then, fans were not breathing so easy when the Real Madrids began heavily recruiting their Cristiano Ronaldo, so in April of 2006 United responded with a $31 million a year contract, the most they've ever payed any player.

2006 saw Cristiano win three of football's top accolades: the PFA Players' Player of the Year, the PFA Fans' Player of the Year, and the PFA Young Player of the Year. Cristiano has been know to be, shall we say, hot tempered, and his antics got him banned for three matches in the 2007-08 season. However, he told his coach that in the future he would not allow rival players to get him riled up. He was made team captain for United in March of 2008 and scored 35 goals for the season, breaking the 40-year-record of George Best who had 32 in 1967-1968.

Just as it seemed Cristiano might head for the Real Madrid team, he remained committed to United for another year. Scoring is 100th and 101st goals in United's 5-0 win over Stroke City in November, it seemed Ronaldo was headed for greatness, something most footballers only dream of. To end his season, Ronald accepted Manchester United's first Ballon d'Or award since George Best won it in 1968. The magnificent Ronaldo finished his season with 446 points-quite the accomplishment for such a young player. We await the 2008-09 season to see more ways Cristiano will wow his fans all over the world.