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    Biography of Cristiano Ronaldo

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    Biography of Cristiano Ronaldo

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    nancysanooj
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    All about cr7

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    All about cr7

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    55 views5 pages

    Biography of Cristiano Ronaldo

    Uploaded by

    nancysanooj
    All about cr7

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 5

    Sports & Recreation

    Soccer

    Cristiano Ronaldo

    Portuguese football player

    Also known as: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro

    Written by

    Fact-checked by

    Last Updated: Sep 7, 2024 • Article History

    Five-time Ballon d’Or winnerCristiano Ronaldo, 2018.

    Top Questions

    When was Cristiano Ronaldo born?

    What was Cristiano Ronaldo’s early life like?

    What was Cristiano Ronaldo best known for?

    Recent News

    Sep. 6, 2024, 5:30 AM ET (BBC)

    Cristiano Ronaldo: 900 career goals – the numbers behind the Portugal
    striker’s landmark

    Cristiano Ronaldo (born February 5, 1985, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal) is a


    Portuguese football (soccer) forward who is one of the greatest players of his
    generation. Ronaldo is the winner of five Ballon d’Or awards (2008, 2013,
    2014, 2016, and 2017), and in 2024 he became the first men’s player to
    score 900 career goals in official matches.

    Early life and career

    Five-time Ballon d’Or winner

    Quick Facts

    Key dates, locations, facts…


    Ronaldo’s father, José Dinis Aveiro, was the equipment manager for the local
    club Andorinha. (The name Ronaldo was added to Cristiano’s name in honor
    of his father’s favorite movie actor, Ronald Reagan, who was U.S. president
    at the time of Cristiano’s birth.) At age 15 Ronaldo was diagnosed with a
    heart condition that necessitated surgery, but he was sidelined only briefly
    and made a full recovery. He first played for Clube Desportivo Nacional of
    Madeira and then transferred to Sporting Clube de Portugal (known as
    Sporting Lisbon), where he played for that club’s various youth teams before
    making his debut on Sporting’s first team in 2002.

    Serena Williams poses with the Daphne Akhurst Trophy after winning the
    Women’s Singles final against Venus Williams of the United States on day 13
    of the 2017 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on January 28, 2017 in
    Melbourne, Australia. (tennis, sports)

    Britannica Quiz

    Great Moments in Sports Quiz

    A tall player at 6 feet 1 inch (1.85 meters), Ronaldo was a formidable athlete
    on the pitch. Originally a right-winger, he developed into a forward with a
    free-reined attacking style. He was able to mesmerize opponents with a
    sleight of foot that made sufficient space for openings in opposing defenses.

    Club play

    After a successful season with Sporting that brought the young player to the
    attention of Europe’s biggest football clubs, Ronaldo signed with English
    powerhouse Manchester United in 2003. He was an instant sensation and
    soon came to be regarded as one of the best forwards in the game. His finest
    season with United came in 2007–08, when he scored 42 League and Cup
    goals and earned the Golden Shoe award as Europe’s leading scorer, with 31
    League goals. After helping United to a Champions League title in May 2008,
    Ronaldo captured Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
    World Player of the Year honors for his stellar 2007–08 season. He also led
    United to an appearance in the 2009 Champions League final, which they
    lost to FC Barcelona.
    One of the greatest goal scorersCristiano Ronaldo (yellow jersey) of Al Nassr
    in a match against Abha, 2023.

    Soon thereafter Ronaldo was sold to Spain’s Real Madrid—a club with which
    he had long been rumored to want to play—for a then record £80 million
    (about $131 million) transfer fee. His scoring prowess continued with his new
    team, and he netted the most goals (40) in La Liga history during the 2010–
    11 season (his record was broken the following season by his rival Lionel
    Messi of Barcelona). In 2011–12 Ronaldo helped Madrid capture a La Liga
    championship and scored a personal-best 46 goals during the League
    season. He scored a total of 66 goals in 56 appearances with Madrid and the
    Portuguese national team in 2013 to earn his second world player of the year
    award (the FIFA World Player of the Year was renamed the FIFA Ballon d’Or in
    2010).

    In 2014 he scored 52 goals in 43 games and led Madrid to a Champions


    League title, which resulted in Ronaldo capturing another Ballon d’Or award.
    In 2014–15 he netted 48 goals to lead La Liga in scoring. Ronaldo netted his
    324th goal as a member of Real in October 2015 to become the club’s all-
    time leading goal scorer. He scored 35 La Liga goals in 2015–16 and helped
    Real win its record 11th Champions League title, and in December 2016 he
    won a fourth career Ballon d’Or for his accomplishments. Ronaldo scored 42
    goals for Real across all competitions in 2016–17 and led his team to La Liga
    and Champions League titles that season, which resulted in a fifth career
    Ballon d’Or award. In 2017–18 he scored 44 goals in 44 games, and Real won
    a third straight Champions League title.

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    Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.

    In July 2018 he reached a four-year contract worth €112 million (about $132
    million) with the Italian powerhouse Juventus. He finished his Real career
    with 311 goals in 292 matches. He scored 28 goals in his first season with
    Juventus—his lowest domestic goal total since his last season with
    Manchester United—as the powerhouse club won its eighth straight Italian
    league title. In the 2019–20 season Ronaldo helped the club capture another
    league title, and Juventus later won the 2020 Supercoppa Italiana and the
    2021 Coppa Italia Final. Several months after the latter match, he left
    Juventus and returned to Manchester United. His second stint with the club
    proved disappointing, however. Both Ronaldo and Manchester struggled, and
    he expressed growing dissatisfaction with the club. In November 2022 his
    contract was terminated by “mutual agreement.” The following month
    Ronaldo signed with the Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr.

    International career

    Cristiano RonaldoPortugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo preparing to kick the ball in a


    World Cup 2010 qualifying football match against Hungary, September 9,
    2009.

    Cristiano RonaldoPortugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (center) in a match against


    Ireland, 2014.

    On his home soil, after moving through the youth and under-21 ranks,
    Ronaldo had made his first appearance for Portugal’s full national team
    against Kazakhstan in August 2003 (four days after his debut for United). He
    was a key player in Portugal’s fourth-place finish at the 2006 World Cup and
    became the full-time captain of the national team in 2008. In 2012 his stellar
    play led Portugal to the semifinals of the European Championship, where his
    team was eliminated by rival Spain in a match that was decided by a penalty
    kick shoot-out. Ronaldo came into the 2014 World Cup hot off of his second
    world player of the year win, but his play at the tournament was spotty, and
    the entire Portugal team struggled during a group-stage elimination.

    In 2016 Ronaldo helped Portugal win the European Championship, the


    country’s first major international tournament title, although he only played
    sparingly in the final because of a knee injury that he had sustained early in
    the match. Ronaldo played brilliantly at the 2018 World Cup, scoring four
    goals in four games as Portugal advanced to the knockout round only to lose
    its first match of that stage to a strong defensive Uruguay side. Four years
    later Ronaldo became the first male player to score at five different World
    Cups. However, he was not part of the starting lineup for several games, and
    Portugal’s 2022 World Cup ended with a loss in the quarterfinals. In a UEFA
    Nations League group stage match against Croatia in 2024, Ronaldo scored
    his 900th career goal, becoming the first men’s player to accomplish the feat.

    Endorsements and legal issues

    A football legendCristiano Ronaldo, 2017.

    Ronaldo was one of the most well-known sports stars off the field, and
    numerous studies of athletes’ popularity showed that he was the most-
    beloved athlete in the world during his playing peak. His extreme popularity
    made Ronaldo one of the highest-paid endorsers in sports history, and in
    November 2016 he became the third person (after basketball superstars
    Michael Jordan and LeBron James) to earn a “lifetime” contract from the
    sportswear company Nike. Moreover, he established his own successful
    “CR7” brand of products that included shoes, underwear, and fragrances.
    Ronaldo’s immense marketability was at the center of a legal issue that
    arose in June 2017. That month prosecutors filed a lawsuit that accused
    Ronaldo of defrauding the Spanish government of €14.7 million ($16.5
    million) by hiding his image-rights income in Spain from 2011 to 2014. He
    was accused of having underestimated the income he earned from the sale
    and licensing of his image rights and the accompanying tax obligations, but
    Ronaldo denied all allegations. However, in June 2018 he accepted a
    suspended two-year prison sentence and agreed to pay €18.8 million ($21.8
    million) to the Spanish government to settle the case

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