If Cristiano Ronaldo is your fave footballer or you are only wondering about when he started his football career, then this post is for you.
With over 500 career goals for both club and international careers which is still counting plus, having won five Ballon d’Or, he is regarded as one of the greatest players to have ever played the game.
Even some football fans believe that Cristiano Ronaldo is the real definition of hard work and consistency while some believe his rivalry with Leo Messi makes him a great player.
In all, he is having a great career, and learning about his football career can be exciting. So, in this post, you will learn;
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- Cristiano Ronaldo’s early life
- When he started playing football
- The age he was when he kicked off his football career
- The year he started playing football
And many more. Let’s enjoy the gist.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s jr Early Career
The Portuguese island of Madeira’s capital, Funchal is where Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on February 5, 1985, while he spent his childhood in the nearby parish of Santo António.
He is the youngest and fourth child of José Dinis Aveiro, a part-time kit man and municipal gardener, and Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros de Aveiro, a chef.
Isabel da Piedade, his great-grandmother on his father’s side, was a native of the Cape Verdean island of So Vicente. Hugo, who is Ronaldo’s older brother, and Elma and Liliana Cátia “Katia” are his older sisters.
However, due to her financial situation, his father’s drinking, and the fact that she already had too many children, his mother admitted that she wanted to abort him, but her doctor refused to carry it out.
According to reports, Ronaldo was raised in a poor Catholic Christian environment where he and his siblings shared a room.
At his tender age, Ronaldo spent two years with Nacional after playing for Andorinha from 1992 to 1995, where his father was the kit man.
When he was 12 years old, he underwent a three-day trial with Sporting CP, who then bought him for £1,500. After a while, he relocated from Madeira to Alcochete, a town near Lisbon before joining Sporting’s youth academy.
And at the age of 14, he thought of stopping his study and focusing on football, aiming to play semi-pro football. He couldn’t finish high school due to his difficult life as a student and living in Lisbon, far from his Madeiran relatives.
There was a time he got dismissed from school after his aggressiveness toward his classmate. Also, at some point, he thought he wouldn’t play football again after he received a tachycardia diagnosis later.
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After all, a laser was used during Ronaldo’s heart surgery to combine several cardiac channels into one, which changed his resting heart rate.
Then after the whole treatment, he was released from the hospital, and a few days later, he started training again. He was truly destined to play football, and look at what he has turned into today.
When Did Cristiano Ronaldo Start Playing Football?
László Bölöni, the manager of Sporting’s first team, noticed Ronaldo’s dribbling at age 16 and gave him a promotion.
He then made history by playing for the club’s first team, the B team, the and under-16, under-17, and under-18 teams all in the same season.
His representatives pitched the player to Barcelona president Joan Laporta and Liverpool manager Gérard Houllier throughout the 2002–03 season.
Wenger was interested in signing Ronaldo and he later met Arsène Wenger at the Arsenal stadium in November to discuss a potential transfer.
Also, the manager of Manchester United, Alex Ferguson was determined to secure his signing after Sporting defeated United 3-1 at the Estadio José Alvalade’s opening in August 2003.
Ronaldo was originally intended to be purchased by United with a one-year loan to Sporting. In the match, Ronaldo announced himself as a top player, and the United players persuaded Ferguson to sign him after being impressed with his display against them.
Ferguson decided to give Sporting £12.24 million after the game in exchange for what he called “one of the most exciting young players” he had ever seen.
In April 2013, Sporting honored Ronaldo by choosing him to be their 100,000th member, ten years after he departed the team.
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When Did Cristiano Ronaldo Join Manchester United?
In August 2003, Ronaldo became the first Portuguese player to join Manchester United. And at that time, he was the most expensive teenager in English football history
When he got to the team, he asked for the number 28, which was his Sporting jersey number, and he was later given the number 7 which had previously been used by stars like George Best, Eric Cantona, and David Beckham while playing for Manchester United.
And On August 16, 2003, Ronaldo made his Premier League debut as a substitute in a 4-0 home victory over Bolton Wanderers.
I could remember vividly what the Manchester United fans gave him a standing ovation when he replaced Nicky Butt. Best praised his performance, calling it “undoubtedly the most electrifying debut” he had ever seen.
In a 3-0 victory over Portsmouth on November 1st, Ronaldo scored his first goal for Manchester United with a free-kick.
In the second half of the season, he added three more league goals, the last of which came against Aston Villa on the penultimate day of the campaign, a game in which he also received his first career red card.
Marking the club’s 1000th premier league goal On October 29, 2004, Ronaldo scored United’s one only in a 4-1 loss to Middlesbrough.
Furthermore, he signed a new contract with the team a few weeks later, extending his prior one by two years to 2010.
At the start of the 2004-2005 season, Ronaldo had two of his best performances, scoring twice against rival Arsenal and providing a goal and an assist against Aston Villa.
He participated for the entire 120 minutes of the goalless draw that was the 2005 FA Cup Final between Arsenal and United, which Ronaldo attempted to score in the shootout but which United ultimately lost 5-4.
Ronaldo scored the third goal in United’s 4-0 victory over Wigan, earning him his second trophy in English football.
His breakthrough season was the 2006–2007 campaign when he crossed the 20-goal threshold for the first time and captured his first Premier League championship.
His one-on-one training sessions with first-team coach René Meulensteen, who hit him to make himself more unpredictable, enhance his teamwork, call for the ball, and capitalize on goal-scoring opportunities rather than waiting for the chance to score the aesthetically pleasing goals for which he was already known, played a significant role in his success.
At the end of December, he scored three back-to-back hat tricks against Aston Villa, Wigan, and Reading, giving United the league lead.
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Ronaldo underwent ankle surgery on July 7 before the 2008–09 season, which sidelined him for 10 weeks.
He scored his 100th goal for United after his comeback, the first of two free kicks in a 5-0 victory over Stoke City on November 15, making him the first player to score against all 19 Premier League opponents at the time.
At the end of the year, Ronaldo assisted on the tin game-winning goal against Liga de Quito to help United win the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup in Japan, and he also took home the Silver Ball for his performances.
In addition, Ronaldo became United’s first Ballon d’Or winner since Best in 1998 after winning both the 2008 Ballon d’Or and the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year.
When Did Cristiano Ronaldo Join Real Madrid?
Ronaldo joined Real Madrid before the 2009–10 campaign for a then-record £80 million (€94 million) transfer fee. His contract had a €1 billion buy-out clause and was worth €11 million annually till 2015.
His presentation at the Santiago Bernabéu drew at least 80,000 spectators, breaking the previous record of 75,000 set by Diego Maradona in Napoli 25 years prior.
Ronaldo was given the number 9 jersey by former Madrid player Alfredo Di Stéfano because club captain Raul already wore the number 7 (which Ronaldo wore at United).
On August 29, Ronaldo faced Deportivo La Coruña in his La Liga debut, winning 3-2 at home. He was the first Madrid player to score in each of his first four league games.
Also, the club’s first two Champions League goals came from his two free kicks in the opening group game against Zürich.
Ronaldo had a solid start to the season before he was sidelined for seven weeks in October while serving on international duty due to an ankle injury. He was given his first red card in Spain a week after his return during a game against Almera.
Fast forward, Ronaldo came in second place to Messi in the 2009 Ballon d’Or and 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year voting in the middle of the season.
His hat trick in a 4-1 victory over Mallorca on May 5, 2010, his first in La Liga, helped him finish the season with 33 goals across all competitions, making him Real Madrid’s leading scorer for the year.
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Despite his impressive performances, Ronaldo failed to win a title in his debut season. Luckily, Before the 2010–11 season, Ronaldo received the number 7 shirt for Madrid as a result of Raul’s departure.
And for the first time in his career, he scored four goals in a single game during a 6-1 blowout over Racing Santander on October 23, it symbolized his eventual return to his Ballon d’Or-winning form.
He also recorded hat-trick victories over Athletic Bilbao, Levante, Villarreal, and Málaga. Unfortunately, he wasn’t placed in the top three in the first FIFA Ballon d’Or in 2010 despite his team and individual performance.
And, For the first time in his career, he was given the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or, a combination of the Ballon d’Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award.
Together with his solo triumphs, Ronaldo also shared Madrid’s tenth European Cup, La Décima, which was his greatest team achievement in Spain to date.
His goal in a 3-0 victory over Dortmund at home (in his 100th Champions League game) brought his season total to 14 goals.
Furthermore, he scored twice in a 4-0 victory over Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena before becoming the first player to score from the spot in the final’s 4-1 victory over Atlético in the 120th minute.
The 2017 Supercopa de Espana first leg was played at Camp Nou at the beginning of the 2017–18 season, and Ronaldo scored Madrid’s second goal in the 80th minute in a 3–1 victory over Barcelona.
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However, two minutes later, he was sent off, and he was unable to play in the second leg. He received the Best FIFA Men’s Player title for the second year consecutively on October 23 as a result of his performances throughout 2017.
And also, his curling goal against Dortmund at home on December 6 became the first player to score in all one of the six Champions League group stage games.
In the end, Ronaldo received his fifth Ballon d’Or award at the Paris Eiffel Tower the following day after winning the 2017 edition.
In all, Ronaldo has proven to be one of the greatest to have ever played the game starting from his rise from Sporting Lisbon to his current team, Al Nasir.
Key Points
- Cristiano Ronaldo started playing football from 1992 to 1995 at Andorinh before Sporting Lisbon signed him at the age of 12.
- Ronaldo joined Manchester United in 2003 while he joined Real Madrid in 2009.
- He has won five Ballon d’Or, two behind his rival Lionel Messi.