Full Name: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
Born Date: 5 February 1985
Birth Place: Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, Funchal, Portugal
Height: 1.87 m
Children: Angel dos Santos Aveiro
Website: cristianoronaldo.com
CR7 Highlight: career-highlights
CR7 Brands: Brands
Siblings: Hugo dos Santos Aveiro, Katia Aveiro, Elma dos Santos Aveiro
Parents: José Dinis Aveiro, Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros da Aveiro
Partner: Georgina Rodríguez (2016–)
Net Worth: $550 million to $650 million
Social Media Account
X Account: @Cristiano
Instagram: @cristiano
Youtube: @cristiano
Facebook: @Cristiano
Biography
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born February 5, 1985) is a Portuguese football star who plays as a forward for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League and captains the Portugal national team.
Recognized as one of the greatest footballers ever, Ronaldo has received five Ballon d’Or awards, three UEFA Men’s Player of the Year honors, and four European Golden Shoes, a record for a European player.
Over his career, he has won 33 major trophies, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions League titles, the UEFA European Championship, and the UEFA Nations League.
Ronaldo holds several records, including the most appearances (183), goals (140), and assists (42) in the Champions League, and he has the most international goals (132) and appearances (214).
He is also the leading scorer in European Championship history with 14 goals. With over 1,200 professional appearances and more than 900 career goals for club and country, Ronaldo is widely considered the top scorer in football history.
Ronaldo began his senior career at Sporting CP before joining Manchester United in 2003, where he won the FA Cup, three consecutive Premier League titles, and his first Ballon d’Or at age 23.
In 2009, he moved to Real Madrid for a then-record fee of €94 million (£80 million), quickly becoming the club’s all-time top scorer and helping secure four Champions League titles between 2014 and 2018. Ronaldo also won two La Liga titles, two Copa del Rey trophies, and multiple individual accolades during his time at Madrid.
In 2018, Ronaldo transferred to Juventus for €100 million (£88 million), the most expensive transfer for a player over 30. He won two Serie A titles and became the first player to finish as top scorer in the English, Spanish, and Italian leagues.
After a brief return to Manchester United in 2021, his contract was terminated in 2022, and in 2023, he joined Al Nassr. His move to Saudi Arabia sparked a trend of high-profile players joining the Saudi Pro League.
Internationally, Ronaldo debuted for Portugal in 2003 and is the most capped male player in football history. He has scored 130 international goals, making him the highest-scoring male player.
Ronaldo has participated in eleven major tournaments, scoring in ten of them, and led Portugal to their first major title at Euro 2016, followed by a UEFA Nations League victory in 2019.
Ronaldo is one of the most recognizable athletes globally. He was ranked as the highest-paid athlete by Forbes in 2016, 2017, and 2023, and was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2014.
With over 1 billion followers across social media platforms, he became the first person to reach that milestone. Ronaldo is also the first footballer to earn over $1 billion in career earnings.
Early life
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on February 5, 1985, in São Pedro, a parish in Funchal, the capital of Madeira, Portugal. He grew up in the nearby parish of Santo António.
Ronaldo is the youngest of four children born to Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros da Aveiro, a cook and cleaning woman, and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener and part-time kit man for the local football club, Andorinha.
His paternal great-grandmother, Isabel da Piedade, was from the island of São Vicente in Cape Verde and moved to Madeira at the age of 16. Ronaldo has one older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia, also known as “Katia.” His father named him after former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, whom he admired.
Ronaldo’s early life was marked by hardship, growing up in a poor Catholic household where he shared a room with his siblings. His mother later revealed that she had considered aborting him due to financial difficulties and his father’s struggles with alcoholism, but the procedure was denied by her doctor.
Ronaldo’s football journey began with Andorinha, where his father worked as a kit man, before moving to Nacional. In 1997, at age 12, he caught the attention of Sporting CP during a three-day trial and was signed for £1,500.
He then relocated from Madeira to Lisbon to join Sporting’s youth academy. At 14, after struggling academically and feeling confident in his footballing ability, he left school with the support of his mother and Sporting coach Leonel Pontes to focus on his football career.
Despite being a popular student, Ronaldo faced challenges at school, including being expelled after throwing a chair at a teacher he felt had disrespected him. A year later, he was diagnosed with tachycardia, a condition that could have ended his football career. However, he underwent successful heart surgery, allowing him to return to training shortly after.
In a 2021 interview, Ronaldo’s mother mentioned that he might have ended up as a bricklayer if he had not pursued a career in football. Growing up, Ronaldo looked up to Brazilian football legends Ronaldinho and Ronaldo Nazário, describing their influence as leaving a “beautiful history in football.”
Personal life
Cristiano Ronaldo has five children. His first son was born on June 17, 2010, in the United States, and Ronaldo has full custody. He has kept the identity of the child’s mother private due to a mutual agreement. In 2015, Ronaldo ended a five-year relationship with Russian model Irina Shayk.
On June 8, 2017, Ronaldo welcomed twins, born in the U.S. via surrogacy. He is currently in a relationship with Spanish model Georgina Rodríguez, who gave birth to their daughter on November 12, 2017. The couple was expecting twins in 2022, but sadly, their son passed away during childbirth while their daughter survived.
Ronaldo’s father, José Dinis Aveiro, passed away in 2005 at the age of 52 due to liver-related issues caused by alcoholism. In January 2023, when Ronaldo moved to Saudi Arabia to play for Al Nassr, the Saudi government made an exception to its law prohibiting unmarried couples from living together, allowing Ronaldo and Georgina to cohabit.
Ronaldo is of Cape Verdean descent through his great-grandmother on his father’s side and was raised in a Roman Catholic family. His mother, Dolores Aveiro, became a well-known figure in Portugal, featuring in advertisements for popular brands such as Maggi and Pingo Doce after Ronaldo rose to global fame.
Health-wise, Ronaldo has stated that he abstains from alcohol and successfully sued a British tabloid for libel after it falsely claimed he was drinking heavily while recovering from an injury. He also avoids getting tattoos so that he can regularly donate blood and bone marrow.
Regarding legal issues, in 2017, Ronaldo was charged with tax evasion, accused of avoiding nearly €15 million in taxes from 2011 to 2014. He was eventually fined €16.8 million after reaching a settlement with Spanish authorities and received a two-year suspended jail sentence.
In 2005, Ronaldo faced a rape allegation in the UK, but the case was dropped after the accusers withdrew their claims. In 2017, he was investigated by Las Vegas authorities for a separate 2009 rape allegation, which he denied.
Ronaldo settled with the woman for $375,000 as part of a non-disclosure agreement. However, in 2019, Las Vegas prosecutors declined to charge Ronaldo, citing insufficient evidence. A civil lawsuit filed by the woman in Nevada was dismissed in 2022 after the judge ruled that her lawyer had improperly used privileged legal documents obtained through cyber-hacking.
