Cristiano Ronaldo (pron. IPA /kɾiʃ.’tjɐ.nu ʁu.’naɫ.du/ or /ʁo.’naɫ.du/; full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro) born 5 February 1985, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal) is a Portuguese professional football player who plays his club football for Manchester United of England having previously played for Portuguese team Sporting Lisbon.
Private Life
Little is known about his private life. His father, Dinis Aveiro passed away on September 7, 2005. Despite that he played in the World Cup Qualifier against Russia only hours after receiving the news. [1] He was also granted compassionate leave by Sir Alex Ferguson and thus missed the Premier League Match against Manchester City on September 10. He however declared himself available for Manchester United’s next match in the UEFA Champions League, against Villarreal.
Rape allegations
On October 19, 2005, it was reported that Ronaldo had been arrested on suspicion of rape having attended a police station for a "pre-arranged appointment" regarding an alleged offence at a London hotel on October 2. The previous day, Manchester United had played London team Fulham F.C. On November 24, 2005, a Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided there was insufficient evidence against Ronaldo and that all charges had been dropped.
Football Career
Able to use either foot and play on both sides of the pitch, he attracted the attentions of Sir Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2003, when Sporting Lisbon beat Manchester United 3–1 in the inauguration of the Alvalade XXI stadium. After the match, United’s players spoke enthusiastically of the young talent that they had just played against saying they would rather have him on their team than have to play against him in the future. That was enough for Ferguson to decide that he wanted to acquire the youngster for his team, who were in the market for a right-sided midfielder, signing him for £12.24 million after recently completing the transfer of David Beckham out of the club.
Since debuting for the famous English club, Ronaldo has earned equal amounts of praise and criticism for his flashy style of play and dribbling skills. He has played primarily as a winger for United and his ability to use both feet allows him to play on either wing. He demonstrated these qualities at the 2004 FA Cup final in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, in which he starred, scoring the first goal in United’s 3–0 win over Millwall.
Ronaldo made his international debut in August 2003, against Kazakhstan. He scored Portugal’s only goal in their 2–1 loss to Greece in the opening match of Euro 2004 and the first goal of the semi final against the Netherlands which Portugal won 2–1. The final saw a rematch of the opening game of the tournament and again, Greece emerged victorious. The tournament ended in failure for Ronaldo and Portugal, and has been followed by a persistent failure to fulfill his obvious potential. As of yet, for all his skill and pace, Ronaldo proves far too inconsistent and the jury still remains concerning whether he is a capable successor to David Beckham and the famous number 7 shirt once worn by Old Trafford legends; Eric Cantona, George Best and Bobby Charlton.
Ronaldo represented Portugal at the 2004 Olympic Games. As of 11 June 2005, he has scored 10 goals in 24 appearances for his country. Ronaldo is currently the second highest scorer in World Cup qualification in the European zone with 7 goals so far.
On the 29th October 2005 Ronaldo scored Manchester United’s 1000th Premiership goal, in a 4–1 loss at the hands of Middlesbrough.
Honours
There is continual debate and critical srutiny as to Cristiano Ronaldo’s style of play. Often critisiced for his ‘individualistic’ style of play, Ronaldo has been questioned by the media, commentators and team-mates. As such, a bust up between Ruud van Nistelrooy and himself at the Carrington Road training ground recently has indeed intensified speculation about Ronaldo’s future at the Manchester club. Recent reports in the newspaper (Mirror) suggest a £20 million swoop is on the cards by Italian giants, Juventus, and a summer exit is possible.
Charity
Ronaldo has also done charity work, including recently flying out Martunis, an 11-year-old Indonesian tsunami survivor and his father to attend one of their World Cup qualifiers, covering all their expenses. Subsequently all the players contributed money to buy them a house in Indonesia.
After the two World Cup qualifiers in June, Ronaldo flew to Indonesia to visit the areas affected by the tsunami and to raise funds. He met the President of the Indonesian Republic Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President of East Timor Xanana Gusmão and raised over 1 billion rupiah by auctioning off his personal sports gear.
