Image via Sports Illustrated

Cristiano Ronaldo has had one of the most successful soccer careers ever and he could be considered one of the greatest players of all time alongside Lionel Messi. To begin, he started his career in Portugal, his home country, and played soccer since he was nine years old. He was diagnosed with a serious heart condition at just 15 years old but that didn’t stop him from playing soccer as he would later join Clube Desportivo Nacional of Madeira and later transferred to Sporting Clube de Portugal in 1997 until 2002, he was only 17 years old.

After a while, he transferred to Manchester United in 2003. He made his debut in the premier league on August 16, 2003, and he had one of the most impressive debuts of all time. Manchester United (Ronaldo’s Team) won 4-0 against The Bolton Wanderers and this wouldn’t be the end of his amazing plays as on August 20, 2003, he played in his home country and won 1-0 against Kazakhstan which would lead him to be called up to the UEFA Euro in 2004. He had an amazing performance but would, unfortunately, lose the finals against Greece, the score was 2-1.

Sadly, in September 2005, Ronaldo’s father would sadly pass away from a liver condition that was caused by his alcoholism. This affected Ronaldo as his father never saw him become the star he is today. In 2006 however, he would make his FIFA World Cup debut playing for Portugal. He had an amazing performance and played six games until losing in the semi-finals, they were in fourth place. Later on February 6, 2007, right after turning 22 he would become the captain of Portugal and play a friendly match against Brazil where he would be given his now iconic number 7 shirt.

Over the years Ronaldo continued to do amazing things in Manchester United until July 6, 2009, when he transferred over to Real Madrid for £80 million. He made his debut in La Liga on August 29, 2009. The World Cup started a couple of months later and Ronaldo was captain of the team and was able to score six points throughout the World Cup until losing 1-0 to the eventual winners, Spain. Ronaldo’s first son would also be born during the World Cup but he didn’t reveal who the mother was at the time. In 2012 Ronaldo helped his team (Real Madrid) win the La Liga title after 4 years of not winning and it would mark his 100th League goal for the team.

The next couple of years would be incredible for Ronaldo, he would continue to put on amazing performances for his team, win a lot of awards, and receive a lot of praise for what he was doing. In 2018 however, Ronaldo signed a 4-year contract with Juventus for a whopping €100 million and he would get an additional €12 million for his youth clubs. It wouldn’t be long before he won his first trophy with the team as in 2019 he and his team would defeat  A.C. Milan to win the 2018 Supercoppa Italiana. In 2022 Ronaldo would once again play in the World Cup but would unfortunately lose once again as he would be benched during a match against Morocco with the score being 0-1. Ronaldo has had an incredible career full of amazing plays across different teams and might be the greatest soccer player of all time. Hopefully, one day he can win The World Cup before he eventually retires.