Football stories | Cristiano Ronaldo

To become a great personality, you firstly need to pass lots of difficulties on your path towards glory. Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the brightest examples! “I don’t want you to say – I didn’t become a footballer because of you,” Dolores Aveiro, Ronaldo’s mother, said to him when he was 12 years old.

At the age of 5, Dolores has remained without a mother (struck by a heart attack). Dolores’ father has left his daughter in a religious children’s, without visiting her even once. Then, he has had another wife. Dolores has run several times from her new home and has been punished for her actions. However, she has been returned to her father, who obviously hasn’t wanted her. Dolores’ step mother used to hit her and the girl has run for the second time – this time from her father. At the age of 18, she has married Jose Dinis Aveiro, who has been a 20-year-old fish trader. When Dolores has become pregnant for the second time, Dinis has been called into the army and has been sent to Africa, where Portuguese colonies fought for independence. He has returned from the war, but he has been very depressed. Dinis has dumped his work and has started drinking. Then, Dolores has moved to Paris, to work as a maid, in order to help her family.

Ronaldo’s mother has returned to Madeira shortly before the fall of the dictatorship of Salazar and has settled on one of the abandoned homes. Meanwhile, her father has emigrated to Australia. Dolores has asked him to take her with him, but she has heard only: “There are no places!” Her husband Dinis has become an alcoholic… The family has had serious money problems, but Dolores has got pregnant for the fourth time. The doctor has refused her an abortion. So, Cristiano Ronaldo was born on 5th February 1985.

Dinis, then, has become an administrator at CF Andorinha. The captain of the team – Fernando Souza agreed to be Cristiano Ronaldo’s godfather, but because of a football match Dinis and Souza have been late with half an hour for the christening… Ronaldo’s father’s job at Andorinha hasn’t been pleasant at all. He has mown the lawn, cleaned the toilets, washed the kits and collected the balls. However, he has drunk a lot after work. Cristiano could not sleep without him and has always sent his sisters to pick him up from the bar. Dinis died in a hospital in London on 7th September 2005. On that day Cristiano was in Moscow, where he was preparing for the qualification for the World Cup in 2006 against Russia.

In the same club – Andorinha, where Dinis has cleaned the toilets, his younger son has been a striker. When Cristiano turned 10 years, he has also played for the team, but has been sold to Nacional for 2 sets of kits and 20 football balls. Ronaldo’s physical development has lagged and his new coach has asked Dolores to give his son more meat and fish and less yogurt.

“Cristiano was a street player with wonderful technique. He is not only chasing the ball on the pitch, but he was climbing trees and was running on the beach. He spent a lot of time without his parents, which made him more independent and proactive,” Pedro Talhinhas, his coach at Nacional, said in an interview.

At the age of 12, Cristiano has had a flu and his mother hasn’t wanted to let him play at the final of a tournament for 13-year-old teenagers. However, Dolores has eventually agreed to let Ronaldo play and her son has scored the winning goal for his team at the final. Then, his godfather has organized a trial for him at Sporting CP. Ronaldo has rapidly impressed everyone at Sporting and The Lions have paid €25,000 to Nacional. Ronaldo’s new club also paid his parents €50 per month and €250 after 2 years. The youngster has also earned €5, because he has run after the balls during Sporting’s matches.

4 years after Ronaldo’s arrival at Sporting, he started to pay for the treatment of his older brother Hugo, who was addicted to drugs. So, Ronaldo started to make ends meet for all the family members, just a few years after he had stopped believing in Santa Claus.

The other children have been making fun of Ronaldo at the academy in Lisbon, because of his accent. However, Cristiano had one friend there – Hugo Pina, who costed €300,000, but couldn’t become a first class player. To continue with, Ronaldo has been admired of Thierry Henry’s speed during the Euro 2000 and that’s why he has worked on his speed every day after training. Ronaldo had once seen Andre Cruz to lift 90 kg. in the fitness and since then Cristiano has started to jump over the fence at night and workout.

In season 2000/01, the doctors discovered his rapid heartbeat and made him a laser surgery. When Ronaldo scored his goal for Sporting in the league match against Moreirense, his mother fainted in the stadium. Actually, this goal was really impressive, because he ran through 4 defenders and found the net. Luis Suarez Miramontes, who was the Massimo Moratti’s adviser at Inter saw that Ronaldo had a great talent and offered Moratti to sign him. But, Inter’s president didn’t want to give €2 m. for a 16-year-old teenager…

Just a year later, Ronaldo has been close to Arsenal, but because of the stadium reconstruction, the transfer was cancelled. Juventus also wanted Cristiano, but they wanted to exchange the striker Salas for the youngster. The Portuguese has also been close to a transfer in Barcelona, but The Catalans couldn’t afford him. So, Ronaldo stayed in Lisbon.

In the summer of 2003 there was a friendly match between Sporting CP and Manchester United. The Portuguese side smashed The Red Devils 3-1, which was mainly because of Ronaldo’s great performance. At the break, the right back John O’Shea has said that he has a dizziness, because of Ronaldo’s technique. After the game, in the locker room, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand have said to Alex Ferguson that he must immediately sign the Portuguese. The coach has laughed and has said that he will take Ronaldo on the plane to Manchester! Then, you all know what happened with Cristiano Ronaldo!