CRISTIANO RONALDO : A

FOOTBALLING SUPERSTAR
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro born on the 5th of
February 1985, at 10:20 AM, Cruz the Carvalho Hospital,
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal is the son of José Dinis
Aveiro and Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro. As Dolores
(Cristiano’s mother) recalls 'My sister who was working
at an orphanage at that time, said that if it was a boy we
could name him Cristiano’ ‘I thought it was a good
choice.And my husband and I both liked the name
Ronaldo after Ronald Reagan. My sister chose Cristiano
and we chose Ronaldo’. At birth Cristiano was 52
centimeters long and weighed around 9 pounds.

‘One Christmas I gave him a remote controlled car,

thinking that would keep him busy,’ recalls his godfather
Fernão Sousa, ‘But he preferred to play with a football.
He slept with his ball, it never left his side. It was always
under his arm - wherever he went, it went with him.’

Cristiano went to the nursery at Externato de São João da

Ribeira, it was run by Franciscan nuns. When he turned 6
he joined the local primary school. For secondary school
he attended Gonçalves Zarco, better known as the
Barreiros school because of how close it was to the
Barreiros stadium. He doesn’t fare too badly but he’s no
bookworm either - he’s just happy to scrape a pass.
 Cristiano began his footballing career in 2001 with
sporting CP and he scored 5 goals assisted 4 goals and
appeared in 31 matches

Cristiano’s childhood wasn’t an easy one, his life wasn’t

filled with all the luxuries which we are privileged to
have. His father passed away to some alcohol related lung
disease when he was just 20 years old, and he was playing
in the World Cup during that time.