Personal information Full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro Date of birth 5 February 1985 (age 29) Place of birth Funchal, Madeira, Portugal Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[1] Playing position Forward Club information Current club Real Madrid Number 7 Youth career 1993–1995 Andorinha 1995–1997 Nacional 1997–2002 Sporting CP Senior career* Years Team Apps† (Gls)† 2002–2003 Sporting CP 25 (3) 2003–2009 Manchester United 196 (84) 2009– Real Madrid 165 (177) National team‡ 2001 Portugal U15 9 (7) 2001–2002 Portugal U17 7 (5) 2003 Portugal U20 5 (1) 2002–2003 Portugal U21 10 (3) 2004 Portugal U23 3 (2) 2003– Portugal 111 (49) Honours UEFA European Championship Silver Portugal 2004 Bronze Poland & Ukraine 2012 * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 21:01, 7 May 2014 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 11 June 2014 (UTC) Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro,[2] OIH (born 5 February 1985),[3] known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Real Madrid and captains the Portugal national team. He became the most expensive footballer in history when he moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth £80 million (€94 million/$132 million). Ronaldos contract with Real Madrid, under the terms of which he is paid €21 million per year (after taxes), makes him the highest-paid footballer in the world, and his buyout clause is valued at €1 billion as per his contract. He is regarded by some in the sport to be currently the best player in the world.[4][5][6][7][8] Ronaldo began his career as a youth player for Andorinha, where he played for 2 years, before moving to C.D. Nacional. In 1997, he made a move to Portuguese giants Sporting Clube de Portugal. Ronaldo caught the attention of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, who signed him for £12.2 million (€15 million) in 2003. In 2004, Ronaldo won his first club honour, the FA Cup. In 2007, Ronaldo was the first player in England to win all 4 main PFA and FWA awards. In 2008 and 2013, he won the FIFA/Ballon dOr award for the best footballer in the world, the first Portuguese player to win the award twice.[9][10] He was awarded the European Golden Shoe in 2008, 2011 and 2014. 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 dOr.[11][12][13] 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. In a 2014 UEFA poll, Ronaldo was named the greatest goalscorer to play in the UEFA Champions League.[14] He is the competitions second top goalscorer of all time with 68 goals, only trailing Raúl with three more. Ronaldo is the first top European league player to reach 40 goals in a single season in two consecutive years, fastest Real Madrid player to reach 100 league goals, and the first player to score against every team in a single season in La Liga.[15] He holds the record for most goals scored in a season for Real Madrid. In January 2014, Ronaldo scored his 400th career goal.[16] After spending his first year at Madrid wearing the number 9 shirt, he began wearing the number 7 again following the departure of long-serving striker Raúl. Ronaldo had previously worn the number 7 shirt at Manchester United. Ronaldo is a Portuguese international and made his debut in August 2003. He has been capped over 100 times and is Portugals top goalscorer of all time. With Portugal he has participated in 5 major tournaments; UEFA Euro 2004, the 2006 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2008, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2012. He scored his first international goal in the opening game of Euro 2004 against Greece, in addition to helping Portugal reach the final. He took over captaincy in July 2008 and captained them to the Euro 2012 semi-finals finishing the competition as joint-top scorer
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 03:21:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015