Cristiano Ronaldo, born February 5, 1985 plays winger for the English Premier League club Manchester United. As a youth player, Sir Alex Ferguson, who signed the eighteen year old to a 21.24 million contract in 2003, where in that same year he won his first cap for the Portuguese, noted Ronaldo's talent. As a delight to his fans, Cristiano reach the final of the UEFA Euro in 2004 and scored his first international goal.



During the 2006-2007 season, Christiano Ronaldo scored on both the club and international levels as the young player's career took off like a rocket. His first Premier League title was given to him that season, too, as he became the Premier League's top scorer. In 2008, Ronaldo went on to be named the FIFPro World Player of the Year and was given the Ballon d'Or award.

As the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Averio and Jose Dinis Averio, his second given name, "Ronaldo," was an obvious choice to his father naming him after the then US president Ronald Regan, but not for his presidency, Regan was Ronaldo's father's favorite actor. Cristiano has two older sisters and one older brother.

Christiano Ronaldo was only eight years old when he began playing for for the amateur team C.F. Andorinha. In 1995, Cristiano signed with local football club CD Nacional. His success was so great that the Sporting CP club gave him a contract after a three-day trial run for a never-disclosed signing bonus. At the Sporting CP facility in Portugal, Ronaldo trained at the footballer's academy the Alcochete. Eventually, he became the only footballer ever to play for Sporting's U-16, U-17, U-18, and B-teams. Manchester United was pleading with Sir Alex Ferguson to sign this young phenom and so, in 2003, recognizing his immense talent, Ferguson did just that, and created a fan favorite.

With a team behind him, Cristiano, was the very first Portuguese player to sign with an English team and he requested number 23, not wanting the number 7 tied to such players as Eric Cantona or David Beckham, among others; there was sense in Cristiano to be his own player and that he was. His team debut was a 60th-minute substitute winning 4.0 over the Bolton Wanderers. He scored United's thousandth Premier League goal in October of 2005 and fans voted him to enter his first FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year awards in that same year.

In 2006, Ronaldo attained consecutive Barclays Player of the Month awards, only the third player in history to do this since Dennis Bergkamp in 1997 and Robbie Fowler in 1996. Cristiano's 50th career goal with Manchester United came against rivals Manchester City F.C. when they claimed their first Premier League title in just four years. Again, Ronaldo was voted the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year Award and thought it looked like he might switch forces to play with the Real Madrids, he signed with United in April of 2006 for a cool $31 million a year-he became the highest player in United's history.

The prestigious PFA Players' Player of the Year, the PFA Fans' Player of the Year, and the PFA Young Player of the Year awards were taken by Cristiano for the 2006-2007 season. However, Ronaldo has been known to rave up with some antics, and these got him banned for three matches during the 2007-08 season. But, he was allowed to play again after he discussed with his coach no longer letting opposing team players get his ire up. He still wound up scoring a record-setting 35 goals for the season; George Best had 32 in 1967-1968. Ronaldo was made team captain in March of 2008.

Just as it seemed Cristiano might head for the Real Madrid team, he remained committed to United for another year. Scoring is 100th and 101st goals in United's 5-0 win over Stroke City in November, it seemed Ronaldo was headed for greatness, something most footballers only dream of. To end his season, Ronald accepted Manchester United's first Ballon d'Or award since George Best won it in 1968. The magnificent Ronaldo finished his season with 446 points-quite the accomplishment for such a young player. We await the 2008-09 season to see more ways Cristiano will wow his fans all over the world.