Cristiano Ronaldo
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Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro GOIH ComM (Portuguese pronunciation: [kɾiʃˈtjɐnu ʁɔˈnaɫdu]; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Professional League club Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won five Ballon d'Or awards[note 3] and four European Golden Shoes, the most by a European player. He has won 34 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, goals in the European Championship (14), international goals (118), and joint-most international appearances (196). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,100 professional career appearances, and has scored over 820 official senior career goals for club and country.
Ronaldo began his senior career with Sporting CP, before signing with Manchester United in 2003, winning the FA Cup in his first season. He would also go 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 League wins 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
During the following season, Ronaldo achieved a new personal best of 60 goals in all competitions.[135] He finished as runner-up to Messi for the 2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or, after scoring hat-tricks against Real Zaragoza, Rayo Vallecano, Málaga, Osasuna and Sevilla, the last of which put Madrid on top of the league by the season's midway point.[136][137][138] Ronaldo found greater team success in the league, helping Madrid win their first league title in four years with a record 100 points. Following a hat-trick against Levante as Madrid further increased their lead over Barcelona,[139] he scored his 100th league goal for Madrid in a 5–1 win over Real Sociedad on 24 March 2012, a milestone he reached in just 92 matches across three seasons, breaking the previous club record held by Ferenc Puskás.[140] Another hat-trick in the Madrid derby against Atlético Madrid brought his total to 40 league goals, equalling his record of the previous season.[141] His final league goal of the season, against Mallorca, took his total to 46 goals, four short of the new record set by Messi,[142] though he became the first player to score against all 19 opposition teams in a single La Liga season.[143]
Ronaldo began the 2012–13 season by lifting the 2012 Supercopa de España, his third trophy in Spain. With a goal in each leg, he helped Madrid win the Spanish Super Cup on away goals following a 4–4 aggregate draw against Barcelona.[144] Although Ronaldo publicly commented that he was unhappy with a "professional issue" within the club, prompted by his refusal to celebrate his 150th goal for Madrid,[145] his goalscoring rate did not suffer. After netting a hat-trick, including two penalties, against Deportivo, he scored his first hat-trick in the Champions League in a 4–1 win over Ajax.[146] Four days later, he became the first player to score in six successive Clásicos when he hit a brace in a 2–2 draw at Camp Nou.[147] His performances again saw Ronaldo voted second in the running for the 2012 FIFA Ballon d'Or, behind four-time winner Messi.[148]
2013–2015: Consecutive Ballon d'Or wins and La Décima
Following the 2012–13 winter break, Ronaldo captained Madrid for the first time in an official match, scoring twice to lift 10-man Madrid to a 4–3 win over Sociedad on 6 January.[149] He subsequently became the first non-Spanish player in 60 years to captain Madrid in El Clasico on 30 January, a match which also marked his 500th club appearance.[150] Three days prior, he had scored his 300th club goal as part of a perfect hat-trick against Getafe.[151] He scored his 200th goal for Madrid on 8 May in a 6–2 win against Málaga, reaching the landmark in 197 games.[152] He helped Madrid reach the 2013 Copa del Rey Final by scoring twice in El Clásico, which marked the sixth successive match at Camp Nou in which he had scored,[153] a club record.[144] In the final, he headed the opening goal of an eventual 2–1 extra time defeat to Atlético, but was shown a red card for violent conduct.[154] In the first knockout round of the Champions League, Ronaldo faced his former club Manchester United for the first time. After scoring the equaliser in a 1–1 draw at home,[155] he scored the winning goal in a 2–1 win on his first return to Old Trafford.[156] He did not celebrate scoring against his former club as a mark of respect.[157] After scoring three goals against Galatasaray in the quarters, he scored Madrid's only goal in the 4–1 away defeat to Borussia Dortmund in the semi-finals and Real were eliminated at the semi-final stage for the third consecutive year despite a 2–0 win in the second leg.[158]
At the start of the 2013–14 season, Ronaldo signed a new contract that extended his stay by three years to 2018, with a salary of €17 million net, making him briefly the highest-paid player in football.[159] He was joined at the club by winger Gareth Bale, whose world record transfer fee of €100 million surpassed the fee Madrid had paid for Ronaldo four years prior.[160] Together with striker Karim Benzema, they formed an attacking trio popularly dubbed "BBC", an acronym of Bale, Benzema and Cristiano, and a play on the name of the British public service broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).[161] By late November, Ronaldo had scored 32 goals from 22 matches for both club and country, including hat-tricks against Galatasaray, Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Northern Ireland, and Sweden.[162][163][164] He ended 2013 with 69 goals in 59 appearances, his highest year-end goal tally.[165] He received the 2013 FIFA Ballon d'Or, an amalgamation of the Ballon d'Or and the FIFA World Player of the Year award, for the first time in his career.[166]
Concurrently with his individual achievements, Ronaldo enjoyed his greatest team success in Spain to date, as he helped Madrid win La Décima, their tenth European Cup. His goal in a 3–0 home win over Dortmund (his 100th Champions League match) took his total for the season to 14 goals, equalling the record Messi had set two years before.[167] After hitting a brace in a 4–0 defeat of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena,[168] he scored from the penalty spot in the 120th minute of the 4–1 final win over Atlético, becoming the first player to score in two European Cup finals for two different winning teams.[169] His overall performance in the final was subdued as a result of patellar tendinitis and related hamstring problems, which had plagued him in the last months of the campaign. Ronaldo played the final against medical advice, later commenting: "In your life you do not win without sacrifices and you must take risks".[170] As the competition's top goalscorer for the third time, with a record 17 goals,[171] he was named the UEFA Best Player in Europe.[172]
In the Copa del Rey, Ronaldo helped Madrid reach the final by scoring two penalties against Atlético at the Vicente Calderón,[173] the first of which meant he had now scored in every single minute of a 90-minute football match.[174] His continued issues with his knee and thigh caused him to miss the final, where Madrid defeated Barcelona 2–1 to claim the trophy.[175] Ronaldo scored 31 goals in 30 league games, which earned him the Pichichi and the European Golden Shoe, receiving the latter award jointly with Liverpool striker Luis Suárez.[176] Among his haul was his 400th career goal, in 653 appearances for club and country, which came with a brace against Celta Vigo on 6 January; he dedicated his goals to compatriot Eusébio, who had died two days before.[177] A last-minute, back-heeled volley scored against Valencia on 4 May (his 50th goal in all competitions) was recognised as the best goal of the season by the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional,[178] which additionally named Ronaldo the Best Player in La Liga.[179]
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During the 2014–15 season, Ronaldo set a new personal best of 61 goals, starting with both goals in Madrid's 2–0 win over Sevilla in the UEFA Super Cup.[180] He subsequently achieved his best-ever goalscoring start to a league campaign, with 15 goals in the first eight rounds.[181] His record 23rd La Liga hat-trick, scored against Celta Vigo on 6 December, made him the fastest player to reach 200 goals in La Liga, reaching the milestone in 178th matches.[181][182] After winning the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup,[183] Ronaldo received the 2014 Ballon d'Or,[184] joining Johan Cruyff, Michel Platini and Marco van Basten as a three-time recipient.[185] Madrid finished in second place in La Liga and exited at the semi-final stage in the Champions League.[186] In the latter competition, Ronaldo extended his run of scoring away to a record 12 matches with his strike in a 2–0 win against Schalke 04.[187] He scored both of his side's goals in the semi-finals against Juventus, where Madrid were eliminated 3–2 on aggregate.[188] With 10 goals, he finished as top scorer for a third consecutive season, alongside Messi and Neymar.[189] On 5 April, he scored five goals in a game for the first time in his career, including an eight-minute hat-trick, in a 9–1 rout of Granada.[190] His 300th goal for his club followed three days later in a 2–0 win against Rayo Vallecano.[191] Subsequent hat-tricks against Sevilla, Espanyol and Getafe took his number of hat-tricks for Madrid to 31, surpassing Di Stéfano's club record of 28.[180] He finished the season with 48 goals, winning a second consecutive Pichichi and the European Golden Shoe for a record fourth time.[180]
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