Born on February 5, 1985, GOAT Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro[a], often known as CR7, is a Portuguese professional football player who captains the Portugal national team and plays forward for Al-Nassr, a Saudi Pro League team.
Throughout his career, he has won several individual honors, including five Ballons d’Or, a record three UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Awards, and four European Golden Shoes. He is widely recognized as one of the best players in history and the finest Portuguese player ever. FIFA also named him the world’s best player five times.
Having won 35 titles during his career, including five UEFA Champions Leagues, GOAT Ronaldo is among the most decorated players in professional football history.
His achievements include the most goals (140) and assists (42) in the Champions League, the most goals (14) and assists (8) in the European Championship, the most international appearances (229), the most men’s international goals (143), and the most international victories (139).
He is the only player to finish as the top scorer in four separate domestic divisions and to have scored 100 goals with four different teams. With more than 1,300 professional appearances—the most of any outfield player—and more than 970 official senior career goals for club and nation, he is the all-time greatest scorer.
GOAT Ronaldo, who was born in Funchal, Madeira, started out with Sporting CP before joining Manchester United in 2003. He won three straight Premier League championships, the Champions League, and the FIFA Club World Cup after steadily establishing himself as a key member of the team.
As a consequence, Ronaldo won both his first Ballon d’Or at the age of 23 and his second Premier League Player of the Season title during the 2007–08 season, making him the second player in Premier League history to accomplish so. When Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 for €94 million (£80 million), it was the most costly move in history at the time.
He led Madrid to four Champions League victories between 2014 and 2018, including the eagerly anticipated La Décima in 2014, where he established a record for the most goals scored in a Champions League season. In addition, he became the team’s all-time leading goalscorer and won two La Liga titles. As a result, he was awarded four Ballons D’Or in 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017.
After disagreements with the club’s management, Ronaldo joined Juventus in 2018 for a league record €100 million. He played a key role in the team’s two straight Serie A victories and Coppa Italia. In addition, he was voted Serie A Footballer of the Year in both 2019 and 2020 and earned the Capocannoniere in 2021 as the league’s best scorer.
He rejoined Manchester United in 2021, however following a disagreement with the club’s management, his contract was terminated in 2022. After joining Al-Nassr in 2023, Ronaldo led them to the Saudi Pro League championship in 2026 and finished as the league’s best scorer in 2024 and 2025.
At the age of 18, GOAT Ronaldo made his debut for Portugal on the international scene in 2003. With almost 200 caps, he is the most-capped male player in history.[7] He has participated in twelve significant competitions. In 2004, he scored his first goal for his country, helping Portugal advance to the final and earning a spot on the Team of the Tournament.
Prior to Euro 2008, he became the national team’s captain; at Euro 2012, he was included in the tournament’s winning squad. At Euro 2016, Ronaldo led Portugal to their first major tournament victory and was chosen to the tournament team for the third time. He scored four goals during his most successful World Cup campaign in 2018.
Prior to participating in his fifth World Cup in 2022, he won the Golden Boot as the highest scorer at Euro 2020. He was the top scorer in both the 2019 and 2025 UEFA Nations Leagues, which he won.
Sportico recognized GOAT Ronaldo, one of the most marketable and well-known sportsmen in the world, as the third highest-paid athlete of all time in April 2026 [8][9] and as the highest-paid athlete of the year for three years in a row between 2023 and 2025.[10, 11, 12, 13, 14] Additionally, from 2016 to 2019, ESPN named him the most renowned athlete in the world and Forbes named him the highest-paid athlete in history five times.
Ronaldo first made an appearance on the World’s Billionaires list in 2026 with a net worth of $1.2 billion.[15] In 2014, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most powerful individuals. With more over 1 billion followers on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, he is the most popular athlete on social media and the first person to do so.
GOAT Ronaldo was included in the Ballon d’Or Dream Team in 2020, the All-time UEFA Euro XI in 2016, and the UEFA Ultimate Team of the Year in 2015. He was honored with special honors for Outstanding Career Achievement by FIFA in 2021 and Champions League All-Time Top Scorer by UEFA in 2024 in appreciation of his record-breaking goal-scoring accomplishments.
GOAT’s Early life
GOAT Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was raised in the neighboring parish of Santo António after being born on February 5, 1985, in the São Pedro parish of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira.[16][17]
He is the fourth and youngest child of José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener at the Junta de Freguesia of Santo António and a part-time kit man for football team Andorinha, and Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros Aveiro, a cook and housekeeper in the hospitality sector [18][19].[20, 21, 22]
His father witnessed war in Angola while serving in the Portuguese Army during the Portuguese Colonial War. His experiences as a soldier devastated him and caused him to suffer with alcoholism for the rest of his life.
Ronaldo has two elder sisters, Liliana C.”ia “Kátia” and Elma, as well as one older brother, Hugo.[2] His father was an admirer of actor and US President Ronald Reagan, who inspired his name.[24] Due to poverty, his father’s drunkenness, and the fact that she already had too many children, his mother disclosed that she intended to abort him;
however, her doctor declined to carry out the surgery.[25][26] Ronaldo shared a room with all of his siblings while growing up in a poor Catholic household.
GOAT Ronaldo spent two years with Nacional after playing for Andorinha as a youth from 1992 to 1995 [28], when his father was the kit man [20]. He had a three-day trial with Sporting CP in 1997 when he was twelve years old, and they signed him for £1,500.[29] After that, he relocated from Madeira to Lisbon to become a member of Sporting CP’s youth program.[29]
At the age of 14, Ronaldo was having difficulty with his schoolwork at Escola EB2 de Telheiras, his school in Lisbon’s Telheiras neighborhood. He thought he could play semi-professionally, and he decided with his mother and his tutor at Sporting CP, Leonel Pontes, [30] to stop his education and devote all of his attention to football.
Despite residing in the Lisbon region far from his Madeiran family, he had a difficult life as a student and did not finish school above the sixth grade [33, 34, 35].[36][37] Despite being well-liked by his classmates, he was expelled after hurling a chair at his instructor, whom he said had “disrespected” him.[31] A year later, he was diagnosed with tachycardia, a disease that may have prevented him from playing football.[38] Ronaldo had cardiac ablation [39], a procedure that changed his resting heart rate by cauterizing many cardiac channels into one using a laser.
Hours after the surgery, he was released from the hospital, and a few days later, he started training again.[41] In an interview with Sporting CP’s official television station (Sporting TV) in 2021, GOAT Cristiano Ronaldo’s mother Dolores Aveiro said that if her son hadn’t turned into a professional football player, he would have been a bricklayer.[42]
Ronaldo has said that the Brazilian football players Ronaldinho and Ronaldo left “a beautiful history in football” and that he looked forward to them as a child.
Club career
Sporting CP
First-team manager László Bölöni promoted him to the senior squad after he made an impression in Sporting’s minor levels. He made his debut for the first team at the age of 17 on August 14, 2002, against Inter Milan in a UEFA Champions League qualifying round at José Alvalade Stadium [44].
A month later, he made his Primeira Liga debut against Braga, and on October 7, he scored two goals against Moreirense in their 3-0 victory.[45] His representation recommended the player to Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona, and Gérard Houllier, manager of Liverpool, during the 2002–03 season.[46] In November, GOAT Ronaldo met with manager Arsène Wenger at Arsenal’s stadium to explore a potential move. Wenger was interested in acquiring Ronaldo.
After Sporting beat United 3-1 at the Estádio José Alvalade’s opening on August 6, 2003, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson was keen to obtain Ronaldo on a permanent transfer as soon as possible. Ronaldo was originally supposed to be signed by United and loaned back to Sporting for a year.[48] The United players encouraged Ferguson to sign him after becoming impressed by him. Ferguson described Ronaldo as “one of the most exciting young players” he had ever seen following the match.
Manchester United
2003–2007: Development and breakthrough
Less than a week after the friendly that pleased Ferguson, on August 12, 2003, Manchester United purchased Ronaldo for £12 million [51], an England record for a teenager.[52] He became the club’s first Portuguese player as a result.[53]
He was given the squad number 7 jersey, which had previously been used by United stars such George Best, Eric Cantona, and David Beckham, despite his desire for the number 28, which was his number at Sporting.[54] Ronaldo found additional inspiration by wearing the number 7.
Ferguson was crucial to his growth when he was in England, as he subsequently stated: “He’s been my father in sport, one of the most important and influential factors in my career.”
On August 16, 2003, Ronaldo made his Premier League debut as a substitute in a 4-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers at home.[57] Best praised his performance, calling it “undoubtedly the most exciting debut” he had ever witnessed.[50] In a 3-0 victory over Portsmouth on November 1,
GOAT Ronaldo scored his first goal for Manchester United via a free kick.[58] After scoring the first goal in a game over Aston Villa on May 15, 2004, GOAT Ronaldo was sent off for the first time in his career.[59, 60] Ronaldo scored the first goal in United’s 3-0 victory against Millwall in the 2004 FA Cup Final, capping his debut season in English football with a title.
He was called the star of the final by BBC expert Alan Hansen.[62] GOAT Ronaldo’s “elaborate” step-overs to defeat opponents had drawn criticism from the British press throughout the season [63], but teammate Gary Neville stated he was “not a show pony, but the real thing” and predicted he would become a world-class player.
GOAT Ronaldo had two of his greatest games of the 2004–05 season at the beginning of 2005, scoring twice against rivals Arsenal and scoring and providing an assist against Aston Villa.[65, 66] Ronaldo scored the third goal in United’s 4-0 victory over Wigan Athletic to win the Football League Cup, his second title in English football.[67]
GOAT Ronaldo was engaged in a number of incidents during his third season in England. Ruud van Nistelrooy, a teammate who was offended by Ronaldo’s showboating style of play, argued with the winger.
After being involved in an altercation during the 2006 FIFA World Cup that resulted in the dismissal of club player Wayne Rooney [69], Ronaldo openly requested a move, bemoaning the lack of support he believed he had gotten from the club.[70] United denied that he will leave the team.[71]
GOAT Ronaldo was jeered during the 2006–07 season due to his World Cup confrontation with Rooney [72], but it turned out to be his breakthrough year as he won his first Premier League championship and reached the 20-goal mark for the first time.
2007–2009: Collective and individual success and Ballon d’Or
He won the Player’s Player, Fans’ Player, Young Player of the Year, and Footballer of the Year awards from the Professional Footballers’ Association and the Football Writers’ Association during the 2006–07 season. This made him the first player to win all four major PFA and FWA awards.[77] Ronaldo finished third in the 2007 FIFA World Player of the Year competition, behind Lionel Messi and Kaká, and was chosen runner-up to Kaká for the 2007 Ballon d’Or [78].
Real Madrid
2009–2015: World record transfer and consecutive Ballon d’Or wins
GOAT Ronaldo paid a then-world record £80 million to join Real Madrid in 2009.[97] His introduction at the Santiago Bernabéu drew at least 80,000 spectators, breaking the 25-year record of 75,000 that had greeted Diego Maradona at Napoli.[98] “Being a Real Madrid player is the realization of my childhood dream,” Ronaldo declared.
2015–2018: All-time Champions League & Real Madrid top scorer and fifth Ballon d’Or
On September 12, 2015, Cristiano Ronaldo overtook Raúl as Real Madrid’s all-time best scorer, with 230 goals in 203 games [134]. After finishing the previous season tied with Messi on 77 goals, Ronaldo also became the Champions League’s all-time leading scorer with a hat-trick in the opening group encounter against Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2015–16 UEFA Champions League.[135] On September 30, he reached the milestone of 500 career goals for club and country with two goals in a 2-0 away victory over Malmö FF.
GOAT Ronaldo won his third Champions League trophy after scoring the game-winning goal in the penalty shootout against city rivals Atletico Madrid. Due in major part to his performance with Portugal in winning Euro 2016, he received the 2016 Ballon d’Or, his fourth, and the first-ever 2016 FIFA World Player of the Year.
Juventus
2018–2020: Consecutive Serie A titles
In 2018, Ronaldo paid €100 million to join Juventus, the largest amount ever paid by an Italian team and for a player beyond 30.[149] Ronaldo stated that he needed a fresh challenge when he signed with Madrid [150], but he later blamed the move on Florentino Pérez, the club president, not supporting him.[151] Ronaldo made his debut on August 18 in a 3–2 victory over Chievo Verona on the road.[152] He received his first red card in 154 Champions League games on September 19 when he was sent off against Valencia in his first Champions League game for Juventus.
Return to Manchester United
2021–2023: Champions League appearances record and 100 Premier League goals
Manchester United said on August 27, 2021, that they had achieved a deal with Juventus to re-sign Ronaldo, subject to a medical, visa, and personal conditions agreement.[181][182] Edinson Cavani agreed to go to number 21, hence Ronaldo was handed the number 7 jersey.[183] According to reports, Ronaldo’s jersey sales in the first 24 hours after a transfer shattered the record, surpassing Messi upon his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.
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