Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born 5 February 1985), known as Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese pronunciation:, is a Portuguese 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 Baloon 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 Ballod'Or in 2013 and 2014. He also won the 2013–14 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. In January 2014, Ronaldo scored his 400th senior career goal for club and country aged 28.[4]
Often ranked as the best player in the world[5] and rated by some in the sport as the greatest of all time,[6][7][8][9] Ronaldo is the first Portuguese footballer to win three FIFA/Ballons d'Or, and the first player to win four European Golden Shoe awards. In January 2015, Ronaldo was named as the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation, during its 100th anniversary celebrations.[10][11] With Manchester United and Real Madrid, he has won three Premier Leagues, one La Liga, one FA Cup, two Football League Cups, two Copas del Rey, one FA Community Shield, one Supercopas de España, two UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Super Cup and two FIFA Club World Cups.
Ronaldo began his career as a youth player for Andorinha, where he played for two years, before moving to C.D. Nacional. In 1997, he made a move to Sporting CP. In 2003 he caught the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who signed him for £12.2 million (€15 million). In 2004, he won his first trophy, the FA Cup. In 2007, Ronaldo was the first player in England to win all four main PFA and FWA awards. In 2008, he won 3 of the 4 main PFA and FWA trophies and was named the FIFA World Player of the Year, FIFPro Player of the Year, World Soccer Player of the Year, and the Onze d'Or.[12][13][14] In 2007 and 2008, Ronaldo was named FWA Footballer of the Year. He was the inaugural winner of the FIFA Puskás Award for Goal of the Year in 2009. He became the world's most expensive player when he moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth £80 million (€94 million/$132 million). His buyout clause is valued at €1 billion.[15] In May 2012, he become the first footballer to score against every team in a single season in La Liga.[16] Ronaldo holds the record for most goals scored in a single UEFA Champions League season, having scored 17 goals in the 2013–14 season.[17] In December 2014, Ronaldo became the fastest player to score 200 goals in La Liga when, in his 178th La Liga game, he scored a hat-trick against Celta Vigo; his 23rd hat-trick was also a La Liga record.[18] He is the only player in the history of football to score 50 or more goals in a season on five consecutive occasions.[19]
Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in August 2003, at the age of 18. He has since been capped over 100 times and has participated in 6 major tournaments: three UEFA European Championships (2004, 2008 and 2012) and three FIFA World Cups (2006, 2010 and 2014). Ronaldo is the first Portuguese player to reach 50 international goals, making him Portugal's top goalscorer of all time as well as the country's top scorer in the European Championship with 6 goals. He scored his first international goal in the opening game of Euro 2004 against Greece, and helped Portugal reach the final. He took over captaincy in July 2008, and he led Portugal to the semi-finals at Euro 2012, finishing the competition as joint-top scorer in the process. In November 2014, Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in the UEFA European Championship (including qualifying) with 23 goals.
