Lably
Skip to content

Cristiano Ronaldo

Portuguese footballer (born 1985)

  • 50 min read
  • 8 chapters
Cristiano Ronaldo during Croatia v Portugal on 2 July 2026 at the 2026 FIFA World Cup
Bryan Berlin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Related on Lably

Through Time (magazine)

Lab · Class 1Time – Reading the ClockLab · Class 2Time (Hours & Half-hours)Lab · Class 11Earth Through TimeLabStory Time

Ronaldo is one of the most decorated players in the history of professional football. His 35 trophies include five UEFA Champions Leagues, two UEFA Nations Leagues and the UEFA European Championship. He is the only player to have scored 100 goals with four different clubs and to finish as the top scorer in four different domestic leagues. He has made over 1,300 professional career appearances, the most by an outfield player, and has scored over 970 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top goalscorer in the history of the sport.

Ronaldo began his career with Sporting CP before signing with Manchester United in 2003. He helped the club win three consecutive Premier League titles, the 2007–08 Champions League, and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. For his performances in 2007–08, Ronaldo was awarded his first Ballon d'Or at age 23. In 2009, he joined Real Madrid in a deal worth €94 million (£80 million), which was the most expensive transfer in history at the time. He helped Madrid win four Champions Leagues and two La Liga titles, and became the club's all-time top goalscorer. He joined Juventus in 2018 and helped them win two consecutive Serie A titles and the Coppa Italia. He returned briefly to Manchester United before joining Al-Nassr in 2023. He was the Saudi Pro League's top scorer in 2024 and 2025, and led Al-Nassr to the league title in 2026.

Ronaldo made his debut for Portugal in 2003 at the age of 18. He helped them reach the final of Euro 2004, and was named captain ahead of Euro 2008. He led Portugal to victory at Euro 2016 and at the UEFA Nations League in 2019 and 2025. Ronaldo holds the records for most international appearances (234), most men's international goals (146), and most international victories (141). He was named in the UEFA Ultimate Team of the Year in 2015, the All-time UEFA Euro XI in 2016, and the Ballon d'Or Dream Team in 2020. In recognition of his record-breaking goalscoring success, he received special FIFA awards for Outstanding Career Achievement in 2021.

Ronaldo was ranked by Sportico as the third highest-paid athlete of all time in April 2026, and appeared on Forbes' The World's Billionaires list the same year, with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Time included him on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. Ronaldo is the most popular athlete on social media, with over 1 billion followers across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Early life

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February 1985 in the São Pedro parish of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira. He grew up in the nearby parish of Santo António. His mother, Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros Aveiro, worked as a cook in the hospitality industry and as a cleaning woman. His father, José Dinis Aveiro, was a municipal gardener at the Junta de Freguesia of Santo António and a part-time kit man for the football club Andorinha. Ronaldo's father had served in the Portuguese Army during the Portuguese Colonial War and saw combat in Angola; he was traumatized by his experiences, which led to a lifelong struggle with alcoholism. Ronaldo has Cape Verdean ancestry through his great-grandmother, Isabel da Piedade, who was born on the island of São Vicente, in what was then Portuguese Cape Verde.

Ronaldo has an older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana "Kátia" Cátia. His father was an admirer of United States president Ronald Reagan, and named Ronaldo after him. Ronaldo's mother revealed that she had wanted to abort him due to poverty, his father's alcoholism, and having too many children already, but her doctor refused to perform the procedure. Ronaldo grew up in an impoverished Catholic home, sharing a room with all his siblings, and continues to identify as a Catholic in his adulthood. He idolised the Brazilian footballers Ronaldinho and Ronaldo during his youth.

As a child, Ronaldo played for Andorinha from 1992 to 1995, and later spent two years with Nacional. In 1997, at age 12, he went on a three-day trial with Sporting CP, which signed him for a fee of £1,500. He moved from Madeira to Lisbon to join Sporting CP's youth system, and attended school at Escola EB2 de Telheiras, located in the city's Telheiras area. While popular with other students, he struggled with his school responsibilities. He was expelled after throwing a chair at his teacher, who he said had "disrespected" him. A year later, he was diagnosed with tachycardia, a condition that threatened to end his football career. He underwent cardiac ablation, a type of heart surgery in which a laser is used to cauterise multiple cardiac pathways into one, which altered his resting heart rate. He was discharged from the hospital hours after the procedure and resumed training a few days later.

By age 14, Ronaldo believed he had the ability to play football semi-professionally. He made an agreement with his mother and his Sporting CP tutor, Leonel Pontes, to cease his education and focus entirely on football. He did not complete schooling beyond the 6th grade. In 2021, Ronaldo's mother stated in an interview that her son would have been a bricklayer if he had not become a professional football player.

Sign in to keep reading

7 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Sports figures

2012 Summer OlympicsMulti-sport event in London, EnglandArnold SchwarzeneggerAustrian and American bodybuilder, actor and politician (born 1947)1988 Summer OlympicsMulti-sport event in Seoul, South KoreaGovernor of CaliforniaHead of government of the U.S. state of CaliforniaMuhammad AliAmerican boxer and activist (1942–2016)First-class cricketCricket played at the highest domestic standard