Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro GOIH ComM (Portuguese
ⓘ
pronunciation: [kɾiʃˈtjɐnu ʁɔˈnaldu] ; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese
professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both the Saudi
Pro League club Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as
one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won numerous individual
accolades throughout his career, such as five Ballon d'Or awards, a record
three UEFA Men's Player of the Year Awards, four European Golden Shoes, and
was named five times the world's best player by FIFA,[note 3] the most by a
European player. He has won 33 trophies in his career, including seven league
titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and
the UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for
most appearances (183), goals (140) and assists (42) in the Champions
League, most appearances (30), assists (8), goals in the European
Championship (14), international appearances (217) and international
goals (135). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,200 professional
career appearances, the most by an outfield player, and has scored over 900
official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top goalscorer of
all time.[note 4]
Ronaldo began his senior career with Sporting CP, before signing
with Manchester United in 2003, winning the FA Cup in his first season. He went
on to win three consecutive Premier League titles, the Champions League and
the FIFA Club World Cup; at age 23, he won his first Ballon d'Or. Ronaldo was
the subject of the then-most expensive association football transfer when he
signed for Real Madrid in 2009 in a transfer worth €94 million (£80 million). He
became a key contributor and formed an attacking trio with Karim
Benzema and Gareth Bale which was integral to the team winning four
Champions Leagues from 2014 to 2018, including La Décima. During this period,
he won back-to-back Ballons d'Or in 2013 and 2014, and again
in 2016 and 2017, and was runner-up three times behind Lionel Messi, his
perceived career rival. He also became the club's all-time top goalscorer and the
all-time top scorer in the Champions League, and finished as the competition's
top scorer for six consecutive seasons between 2012 and 2018. With Real,
Ronaldo won four Champions Leagues, two La Liga titles, two Copas del Rey,
two UEFA Super Cups and three Club World Cups. In 2018, he signed
for Juventus in a transfer worth an initial €100 million (£88 million), the most
expensive transfer for an Italian club and for a player over 30 years old. He won
two Serie A titles, two Supercoppa Italiana trophies and a Coppa Italia, became
the inaugural Serie A Most Valuable Player, and the first footballer to finish as top
scorer in the English, Spanish and Italian leagues. He returned to Manchester
United in 2021, finishing his only full season as the club's top scorer, before his
contract was terminated in 2022. In 2023, he signed for Al Nassr.
Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in 2003 at the age of 18 and
has earned more than 200 caps, making him history's most-capped male
player.[8] With 130 international goals, he is also the all-time top male goalscorer.
Ronaldo has played in eleven major tournaments and scored in ten; he scored
his first international goal at Euro 2004, where he helped Portugal reach the final.
He assumed captaincy of the national team in July 2008. In 2015, Ronaldo was
named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football
Federation. The following year, he led Portugal to their first major tournament title
at Euro 2016, and received the Silver Boot as the second-highest goalscorer of
the tournament. This achievement saw him receive his fourth Ballon d'Or. He
also led them to victory in the inaugural UEFA Nations League in 2019, receiving
the top scorer award in the finals, and later received the Golden Boot as top
scorer of Euro 2020. The same tournament, he broke the record of most
international goals scored in men's football and became the player with the most
international caps in men's football in 2023.
One of the world's most marketable and famous athletes, Ronaldo was ranked
the world's highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2016, 2017, 2023, and 2024 and the
world's most famous athlete by ESPN from 2016 to 2019. Time included him on
their list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. Ronaldo is the
most popular sportsperson on social media: he counts over 1 billion total
followers across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, making him the first
person to achieve that feat. In 2020, Ronaldo was named to the Ballon d'Or
Dream Team and he is the first footballer and the third sportsman to earn US$1
billion in his career.
