Facts about Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo is quite possibly the most famous sports figure in the world at the moment. Most people would feel like they know a fair amount about their favorite player, however here are some facts that most people probably don’t know about.
Cristiano Ronaldo was born on the fifth of February in 1985. He shares his birthday with Ivory Coast manager, Sven Goran Eriksson.
Ronaldo won his first trophy with Manchester United way back in 2004. That was his first season with the club but he was already an inspiration to the team by then. He helped the Red Devils lift the FA Cup in the 2003-2004 season, which saw them beating teams like Arsenal and Aston Villa along the way. Ronaldo managed to score the opening goal in the final match which was played against Millwall. United went on to win that match three goals to nil.
Crisitano Ronaldo was initially named, Cristiano Dos Santos Aveiro when he was born. But his father decided to rename him and gave him the second name of, Ronaldo after the then USA president Ronald Reagen. Ronald is Ronaldo in Portugese.
On October twenty ninth 2005, Manchester United suffered a terrible loss at the hands of Middlesbrough. They lost to a score line of four goals to one. Their only goal of the game was scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. However what’s important to note here is the fact that that goal was the one thousandth goal scored by Manchester United in the Premier League.
Cristiano Ronaldo was the first Portuguese player to play for Manchester United. He arrived in the 2003-2004 season for a fee estimated to be around 12.3 million pounds. Ronaldo’s arrival has however paved the way for Portuguese speaking players such as Luis Nani, Anderson and the Silva brothers to join Manchester United.
When Ronaldo arrived at Old Trafford he asked to be assigned the number twenty eight jersey. However Alex Ferguson decided to give him the number seven jersey instead. This only acted as a motivational factor to Ronaldo who said that he had to do his best to live up the number seven jersey which was previously worn by Manchester United legends in the past including David Beckham and Eric Cantonna.
In January 2009 Cristiano Ronaldo became the first Barclays Premier League player to lift the FIFA Player of the year trophy. He beat players like Messi, Kaka and Torres to claim the prize. He was also the first Portuguese to win the prize since, Luis Figo won it in 2001.
Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for attracting the largest crowd at a players unveiling presentation. When Cristiano Ronaldo was presented as a Real Madrid player, over eighty thousand fans filled the seats of the Santiago Bernabau to witness the event. This Ronaldo surpass Maradona’s record of seventy thousand fans attending his unveiling as a Napoli player in 1984.
Ronaldo won the first ever FIFA Ferenc Puskas award. The award was created to honor the Hungarian football legend Ferenc Puskas and it is given to the player who scores the most beautiful goal. Ronaldo won it for his forty yard pile driver against Porto in the Champions League semi finals in 2009.
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