Cristiano Ronaldo: The Top-10 Facts About The Modern-Day Legend : DIGi

ABH February 04, 2022 0

Cristiano Ronaldo: The Top-10 Facts About The Modern-Day Legend : DIGi Cristiano Ronaldo, widely regarded as one of the finest footballers to have played the game, turns 36 today. From a humble beginning, the Portuguese has, brick by brick, built himself a storied career that has seen him cementing his place among the football royalty and he still continues to create new records with age, seemingly, having no impact on his appetite to score goals.

Happy Birthday, Cristiano Ronaldo

He has tasted success at both the club and international level and has played for some of the biggest teams including Premier League’s Manchester United, Real Madrid of La Liga and currently for Juventus, the defending Serie A champions. He has won the Euro Championship and UEFA Nations League with Portugal, league titles in England, Spain and Italy, multiple Champions League trophies and five times has been crowned as the world’s best footballer. Also Read - Manchester United's Mason Greenwood Released On Bail 'Pending Further Investigation'

Happy Birthday, Cristiano Ronaldo

His tremendous success on the field has reflected in his earnings. In 2020, he became the third athlete in history to earn one billion dollars across his playing career after golfer Tiger Woods  and boxer Floyd Mayweather. Alongside FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, he is counted among the greatest footballers of his generation.

Here are some of the interesting facts from the life and career of Ronaldo.

1. Ronaldo was diagnosed with a racing heart as a teenager that could have ended his dreams of taking up football as a career. However, he underwent a surgery before resuming his training few days later.

Happy Birthday, Cristiano Ronaldo

2. Ronaldo represented amateur team Andorinha where his father was a kitman. He eventually was signed by Sporting CP before catching the eye of the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United.

3. Before joining United, Ronaldo’s representatives explored the options with other clubs including Liverpool FC, Arsenal FC and FC Barcelona. Eventually, he joined the United for a reported transfer fee of £12.24 million.

4. Ronaldo quickly became a fan-favourite at Old Trafford impressing with his dribbling, speed and goal-scoring abilities. He won three Premier League titles and Champions League with the club before leaving for Real Madrid in 2009. In 2008, he won his first Ballon d’Or award.

5. Ronaldo arrived at Real after breaking the transfer fee record (£80 million) with reportedly 80,000 fans attending his unveiling at Santiago Bernabéu. He went on to become their all-time leading goal-scorer and won two La Liga and four Champions League titles during his spell apart from several other competitions. Before he left Real, Ronaldo also won Ballon d’Or award four more times.

6. With 134 goals till date, Ronaldo has scored the most competitions in UEFA Champions League history.

Happy Birthday, Cristiano Ronaldo

7. He is one of the two footballers to have scored a goal in each minute of a game.

8. With 102 goals for Portugal, he’s the second in the list of all-time leading goal-scorers at international level. Ali Daei of Iran currently leads the list with 109 goals.

9. He has scored the most number of hat-tricks (9) at international level and became the oldest player (33 years and 130 days) to do so at a FIFA World Cup.

10. Ronaldo has 259m followers on the popular photo sharing platform Instagram which is the most for any individual account.