Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February 1985 in Funchal, on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He plays as a forward and captains both Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League and the Portugal national team. Known as CR7, he is considered one of football’s all-time greats. His individual honors include five Ballon d’Or awards, a record three UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Awards, four European Golden Shoes, and five FIFA World Player of the Year titles.

Ronaldo has won 35 trophies in his career, among them five UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Nations Leagues, and the UEFA European Championship. He holds the Champions League records for most goals (140) and assists (42), as well as the European Championship records for most goals (14) and assists (8). He also has the most international appearances (233), most men’s international goals (146), and most international victories (141). He is the only player to have scored 100 goals for four different clubs and to finish as top scorer in four different domestic leagues. With over 1,300 professional appearances—the most by any outfield player—and more than 970 official senior goals for club and country, he is the all-time leading goalscorer.

Ronaldo started his career at Sporting CP, then moved to Manchester United in 2003. At United, he won three straight Premier League titles, the 2007–08 Champions League, and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. His performances that season earned him his first Ballon d’Or at age 23. In 2009, he transferred to Real Madrid for €94 million (£80 million), then a world-record fee. He was central to Madrid’s revival as a European powerhouse, helping them win four Champions Leagues between 2014 and 2018—including the long-awaited La Décima in 2014, when he set the record for most goals in a single Champions League season. With Madrid, he also won two La Liga titles, collected Ballon d’Or awards in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017, and became the club’s all-time top scorer.

After falling out with Madrid’s hierarchy, Ronaldo joined Juventus in 2018 for a Serie A-record €100 million. He helped the club win two consecutive Serie A titles, the Coppa Italia, and the Capocannoniere as league top scorer in 2021. He returned to Manchester United in 2021, but his contract was terminated in 2022 following a public dispute with management. In 2023, he signed with Al-Nassr, leading them to the Saudi Pro League title in 2026 and finishing as the league’s top scorer in 2024 and 2025.

Ronaldo made his Portugal debut in 2003 at age 18 and has since become the most-capped male player in history, with over 200 appearances. He scored his first international goal at Euro 2004, where Portugal reached the final. He became captain before Euro 2008 and led the team to its first major trophy at Euro 2016. At Euro 2020, he won the Golden Boot as top scorer. He also won the UEFA Nations League in 2019 and 2025, finishing as top scorer in both tournaments. In 2026, he became the first player to score in six World Cups and his country’s all-time top World Cup scorer with 11 goals.

One of the most famous and marketable athletes globally, Sportico ranked him the third highest-paid athlete of all time in April 2026. That same year, Forbes listed him among the world’s billionaires for the first time, with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people in 2014. He is the most popular athlete on social media, with over one billion followers across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. UEFA included him in its Ultimate Team of the Year in 2015, the All-time Euro XI in 2016, and the Ballon d’Or Dream Team in 2020. FIFA gave him a special Outstanding Career Achievement award in 2021.

Ronaldo was born in the São Pedro parish of Funchal and grew up in nearby Santo António. His mother, Maria Dolores, worked as a cook and cleaner; his father, José Dinis, was a municipal gardener and part-time kit man for the local club Andorinha. José served in the Portuguese Army during the Colonial War in Angola and struggled with alcoholism afterward. Ronaldo has Cape Verdean ancestry through his great-grandmother, Isabel da Piedade, from São Vicente.

He has an older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana “Kátia” Cátia. His father, an admirer of U.S. President Ronald Reagan, named him after the president. His mother has said she considered aborting him due to poverty and her husband’s drinking, but her doctor refused. Raised in a poor Catholic home, he shared a room with his siblings and remains a Catholic. As a child, he idolized Brazilian stars Ronaldinho and Ronaldo.

He played for Andorinha from 1992 to 1995, then spent two years at Nacional. In 1997, at age 12, he went on a three-day trial with Sporting CP, which signed him for £1,500. He moved from Madeira to Lisbon to join the club’s academy.