Winger Cristiano Ronaldo signed with the English Premier League club of Manchester United for $21.24 million in 2003. Born on the fifth of February in 1985, he was just 18 years old when he got this contract. After receiving his first cap while playing in 2003 for the Portuguese, he enthralled his fans by scoring his first international goal in the UEFA Euro finals in 2004.

Winger Cristiano Ronaldo signed with the English Premier League club of Manchester United for $21.24 million in 2003. Born on the fifth of February in 1985, he was just 18 years old when he got this contract. After receiving his first cap while playing in 2003 for the Portuguese, he enthralled his fans by scoring his first international goal in the UEFA Euro finals in 2004.

Ronaldo was on the global rise scoring often at both club and international levels and received his first Premier League title in the 2006-07 season. As the Premier League's top scorer, Ronaldo was named the FIFPro World Player of the Year in 2008. Also in 2008, Ronaldo achieved the Ballon d'Or award-quite the achievement for such a young soccer player.

As the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Averio and Jose Dinis Averio, his second given name, "Ronaldo," was an obvious choice to his father naming him after the then US president Ronald Regan, but not for his presidency, Regan was Ronaldo's father's favorite actor. Cristiano has two older sisters and one older brother.

Ronaldo began playing for the amateur team C.F. Andorinha when he was just eight years old. Local football club CD Nacional took him in 1995, and for them he played so amazingly well that the Sporting CP club let him play for them for three days and afterward they signed him to a contract for an unknown signing bonus. At Portugal's Sporting CP, Cristiano attended the Alcochete, a renowned footballer's academy. He would go on to become the only footballer in history to play for the Sporting CP club's U-16, U-17, U-18, and B-teams. After much pleading from many of his players and after seeing his talent for himself, Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson signed him to a contract. He became an instant hit with the fans.

Cristiano was now backed by a talented team as the first ever Portuguese player to sign with an English team. He asked for jersey #23, rather than take the #7 tied associated with David Beckham and Eric Cantona. Cristiano wanted to be his own player and that's exactly what he was from the start. He made his debut in the 60th minute as a substitute when his team was winning 4-0 over the Bolton Wanderers. In 2005, Christiano scored United's thousandth Premier League goal in October of that year, and in that same year fans voted for him to enter his first FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year awards.

The following year, Ronaldo won back to back Barclays Player of the Month awards. Only Robbie Fowler in 1996 and Dennis Bergkamp in 1997 had done that before. It was when Manchester United was playing against rivals Manchester City F.C. that Christiano's 50th career goal helped his team win their first Premier League title in four years. Ronaldo was awarded the FIFPro Special Young Player of the Year Award by fan vote again. It looked like Ronaldo might change loyalties and go over to the Real Madrids, so in April of 2006 United got him a contract for $31 million a year, making him the most highly paid player in United's history.

In the 2006-07 season, Cristiano received three top honors including the PFA Players' Player of the Year, the PFA Young Player of the Year, and the PFA Fans' Player of the Year. The mischievous Cristiano was banned for three matches in the 2007-08 season but claimed his lesson was learned and he would not let rival team members rattle his performance in the future. In March of 2008, he became team Captain for United and outshined George Best's forty-year old record of scoring 32 goals in the 1967-68 season; Cristiano scored thirty-five.

In spite of at one point leaning toward the Real Madrid team, Cristiano chose to remain with United for another year. He scored personal goals nos. 100 and 101 in November during a 5-0 victory over Stroke City; and it then seemed beyond the shadow of a doubt that Ronaldo is heading for football greatness that few players can ever dream of. Manchester United rewarded Ronaldo's season performance, which he ended with 446 total points, by giving him the first Ballon d'Or award since George Best's in 1968. There's no end in sight for Cristiano Ronaldo, much to his fans' delight.

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