Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is a Portuguese forward born on 5 February 1985 in Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. He stands 1.89 m and weighs 85 kg. He plays as a forward and is currently attached to Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.

Cristiano Ronaldo's origins lie in Madeira, where his father José Dinis Aveiro served as equipment manager at the local club Andorinha. It was at Andorinha that his speed and small stature earned him the nickname Abelhinha, meaning Little Bee. He first played for Clube Desportivo Nacional in Madeira.

Ronaldo left Madeira for Lisbon at age 12 after trials at the Sporting academy, where Aurélio Pereira recalled that he demanded the ball from older players within five minutes of a session. He joined Sporting and made his first-team debut in 2002 as a teenager, playing only 31 senior games before moving to England. The club's record books place him alongside Fernando Peyroteo, the other great scorer in Sporting's history, who averaged 1.62 goals a game across 541 matches.

A dazzling display in a pre-season friendly against Manchester United in August 2003 led the English club to sign him for 12.24 million pounds. He scored 118 goals in 292 appearances before his move to Spain. His finest season came in 2007-08 with 42 League and Cup goals and the European Golden Shoe with 31 league goals. The first spell brought three Premier League titles, the FA Cup, two League Cups, the Champions League and the first of five Ballons d'Or.

His second spell at Manchester United ended with one Premier League goal in 10 appearances. In a Piers Morgan interview before the World Cup he said United had betrayed him and that he had no respect for manager Erik ten Hag. He left the club as a free agent.

Ronaldo joined Real Madrid for a then record fee of 80 million pounds, roughly 131 million dollars at the time, and was unveiled at the Santiago Bernabéu on 6 July 2009 alongside Eusébio and Alfredo Di Stéfano. Across nine seasons in Madrid he scored 450 goals in 438 appearances, a total that included 105 Champions League goals and 312 in La Liga, and he led the club's scoring in both competitions. His honours there comprised four Champions League titles, three Club World Cups and two La Liga championships, while individually he collected four Ballons d'Or, three European Golden Shoes and two The Best awards.

In the 2013-14 Champions League he scored 17 goals, a single-campaign record that broke the previous mark of 14 shared by José Altafini and Lionel Messi. He finished as the competition's top scorer six times while at Madrid. Against Granada he scored five goals from open play, joining a short list of Real Madrid players that includes Ferenc Puskás and Bebeto.

In October 2015 he overtook Raúl's 323 goals to become Real Madrid's all-time leading scorer, and he became the first player to score 30 La Liga goals in six consecutive seasons.

Ronaldo was officially presented as a Juventus player after his transfer from Real Madrid, where he had spent nine years, signing a four-year contract worth 112 million euros. By the time he joined the club he had finished as the Champions League's top scorer for six seasons in a row and was its all-time leading marksman with 120 goals. Across the span from summer 2018 to August 2021 he made 134 appearances and scored 101 goals for Juventus.

He became the first player in Juventus history to score at least 100 goals in all competitions in his first three seasons at the club.

He opened his Juventus account on 16 September 2018 against Sassuolo on the fourth matchday of the Serie A season, and his first season in Turin ended with 28 goals in all competitions. He was Serie A's top scorer in 2020-21 with 29 goals from 168 shots and became the first player to finish as top scorer in La Liga, the Premier League and Serie A.

Al Nassr signed him while he was a free agent after his break-up with Manchester United, without waiting for the transfer window to open. Aged 40 he agreed a new two-year contract with the club that runs until 2027 and keeps him in the Saudi Pro League. He felt the standard of the Saudi Pro League was improving and that staying there gave him the best preparation for the 2026 World Cup.

Ronaldo's first youth international appearance came on 24 February 2001 and his senior debut followed in a friendly against Kazakhstan on 20 August 2003 just four days after his Manchester United debut. His first international goal came against Greece at the 2004 European Championship and he was a key player in Portugal's fourth-place finish at the 2006 World Cup before becoming full-time captain two years later. He holds the European Championship records for appearances with 25 and goals with 14 and has played in five European Championship finals. At Euro 2020 he won the Golden Boot with five goals in four games edging Patrik Schick on assists.

Portugal's first major international title came at Euro 2016 though a knee injury sustained early in the final limited him to a brief appearance. At the 2019 Nations League finals he scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 semi-final win over Switzerland and Portugal beat the Netherlands 1-0 in the final. In June 2025 he scored the winning goal against Germany in the Nations League semi-final and then equalised in the final against Spain which Portugal won on a penalty shootout.

His 110th and 111th Portugal goals against the Republic of Ireland in September 2021 broke the men's international scoring record both being late headers after Gavin Bazunu saved his penalty and that 180th appearance equalled Sergio Ramos' European record for men's caps. In March 2023 he marked a world-record 197th men's international appearance with two goals in a 4-0 win over Liechtenstein and became the first man to score 100 goals in competitive internationals. He passed Bader Al-Mutawa's 196 international appearances in March 2023 and in June 2023 became the first male footballer to reach 200 caps. By December 2022 he had scored 118 goals for Portugal nine more than Ali Daei.

He became the first player to score in five different World Cups with a goal against Ghana at the 2022 tournament in Qatar and came on as a 51st-minute substitute in the World Cup quarter-final against Morocco which Portugal lost by a single goal. He was dropped from the starting XI in Qatar but kept the captaincy under new manager Roberto Martinez. He was selected in the provisional squad for the 2026 World Cup a record sixth appearance at which point he held the men's records with 226 caps and 143 goals having avoided a three-match ban after being sent off in the penultimate World Cup qualifier against the Republic of Ireland in November. Portugal faced DR Congo in Houston on 17 June then Uzbekistan before closing Group K against Colombia in Miami.

Aged 41 years and 132 days he became the oldest outfield player to start a World Cup match against DR Congo at the 2026 tournament where he scored three goals. Before the round of 16 defeat by Spain he said the 2026 World Cup would be the last he played in and said he had considered retiring from international football after the World Cup before deciding to continue. He said scoring his 1,000th goal for Portugal would be a beautiful story and was due to win his 234th cap against Wales in Lisbon seeking to add to his 146 international goals.

He left the Portugal squad in October 2026 after a dispute with head coach Jorge Jesus during the Nations League window having earlier left the squad after being an unused substitute in a 2-1 Nations League win away to Norway on 27 September 2026 and issued a statement citing a breach of trust. The Portuguese Football Federation opened disciplinary proceedings in October 2026 and imposed a provisional suspension while the head coach said the door remained open for a return.

Ronaldo's honours include seven domestic top-flight titles, 11 other major domestic trophies, five Champions Leagues and one European Championship ^{11Portugal 4-0 Liechtenstein: Cristiano Ronaldo scores twice · BBC Sport ↗}. Guinness records the same core tally of seven league titles and five Champions League titles, noting that he stood as the competition's all-time top scorer with 140 goals in 183 appearances ^{12Cristiano Ronaldo: Football and social media star · Guinness World Records ↗}.

Those Champions League goals were scored for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus ^{13Most Champions League goals · Guinness World Records ↗}.

He scored eight Champions League hat-tricks, a figure matched only by Lionel Messi^{13Most Champions League goals · Guinness World Records ↗}. Guinness World Records inducted him into its ICONS list in 2024, noting that he had scored almost 900 career goals for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus^{12Cristiano Ronaldo: Football and social media star · Guinness World Records ↗}. His Instagram account has been the most followed on the platform since 2017, with 478 million followers when the page was published^{1Cristiano Ronaldo: Most goals in men's internationals · Guinness World Records ↗}. He scored his 900th career goal in 2024 against Croatia in the Nations League^{14Cristiano Ronaldo: Biography, Records and Career · Encyclopaedia Britannica ↗}.