Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro GOIH (born 5 February 1985), known as Cristiano Ronaldo, 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 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. In January 2015, Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation, during its 100th anniversary celebrations. 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 Supercopa de España, two UEFA Champions Leagues, 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 moved to Sporting CP. In 2003 he signed for Manchester United for £12.2 million (€15 million). In 2004, he won his first trophy, the FA Cup. In 2007 and 2008, Ronaldo was named FWA Footballer of the Year, and was named the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2009 he won the FIFA Puskás Award for Goal of the Year. 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. In May 2012, he became the first footballer to score against every team in a single season in La Liga. Ronaldo holds the record for most goals scored in a single UEFA Champions League season, having scored 17 goals in the 2013–14 season. In December 2014, Ronaldo became the fastest player to score 200 goals in La Liga, which he accomplished in his 178th La Liga game. He is the only player in the history of football to score 50 or more goals in a season on five consecutive occasions. In September 2015, Ronaldo became the all-time top goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League with 82 goals, and in October 2015 he became Real Madrid's all-time leading goalscorer.

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 all-time top goalscorer 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.

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.

The family was staunchly Catholic. Ronaldo later claimed that he lived in poverty, sharing a room with his brother and sisters. Ronaldo was popular with other students at school, but he was expelled after he threw a chair at his teacher. Ronaldo later said of the incident, "He disrespected me". At age 14, Ronaldo agreed with his mother to focus entirely on football. He states, "When I got to 14 I felt I had the potential. I thought I was maybe good enough at that time to play semi-professionally". Ronaldo had started playing for amateur team Andorinha at age 8, where his father was the kit man. In 1995, Ronaldo, aged 10, signed with local club Nacional, and, after a title-winning campaign, he went on a three-day trial with Sporting CP, who subsequently signed him for an undisclosed sum.

Outside football
Personal life
Ronaldo's father, José Dinis Aveiro, died of an alcoholism-related liver condition at the age of 52 in September 2005 when Ronaldo was 20. Ronaldo has said that he does not drink alcohol and he received libel damages over a Daily Mirror article that reported him drinking heavily in a nightclub while recovering from an injury in July 2008.

In October 2005, a month after his father died, Ronaldo was arrested on suspicion of raping a woman in a London hotel and released on bail. Ronaldo denied the allegations and charges were dropped by Scotland Yard in November 2005 due to "insufficient evidence". Ronaldo issued a statement saying: "I have always strongly maintained my innocence of any wrong-doing and I am glad that this matter is at an end so that I can concentrate on playing for Manchester United".

Ronaldo became a father on 17 June 2010 following the birth of a son. The child, named Cristiano, and nicknamed by the family 'Cristianinho', was born in the United States, and Ronaldo announced that he had full custody. Ronaldo has never publicly revealed the identity of his son's mother.

Ronaldo has previously dated English models Alice Goodwin and Gemma Atkinson. In 2010, he began dating Russian model Irina Shayk, whom he reportedly met through their Armani Exchange campaigns. Ronaldo and Shayk appeared together on the May 2014 cover of Vogue's Spanish edition. The couple ended their relationship in January 2015. He is a Roman Catholic. Ronaldo does not have tattoos as it would prevent him from donating blood, which he does several times a year. In August 2015, Ronaldo bought an $18.5 million loft in Trump Tower in New York City.