The Final Piece of Cristiano Ronaldo’s Jigsaw
The relentless pursuit of silverware goes on.
Having claimed five Champions League crowns, five Ballons d’Or, a European Championship with Portugal and a host of other trophies in a glorious playing career with Sporting, Manchester United and Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo now sets his sights on the game’s greatest prize. But it may just be a step too far.
Ronaldo is relentless. At the age of 10, he joined Madeira’s biggest club, Nacional, and he was soon considered the best young player on the Atlantic archipelago – even when he was up against older boys. By 11, he was part of Portugal’s finest academy at Sporting, on the mainland, and at 18 he signed for Manchester United.
“He was captain of the team,” former Nacional youth coach Pedro Talinhas told Goal. “And even though he was a junior in his first year, many times he played against boys that were three years older than him – and often he stood out even then. You could see that he was a kid who had immense abilities, immense potential.”
At Sporting, he was yet another talented player to emerge from the country’s finest youth system, yet there was something special about the winger even then.
“There were three excellent young players at that time,” Ronaldo’s former team-mate at the Lisbon outfit, Andre Cruz, told Goal. “There was Ricardo Quaresma, Hugo Viana, who signed for Newcastle, and Cristiano.
“All of them were very talented, but you could see that Ronaldo was different.
“He was restless back then. There was a seriousness to him that has turned him into the great champion he is today. He had the quality and the conditions, the potential was there. And his physique was superior, plus he hardly ever gets injured.
Now at the age of 33, Ronaldo has just won his fifth Champions League, the last four at Real Madrid following his 2008 success with Manchester United.
