CRISTIANO RONALDO:THE GOAT OF FOOTBALL

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Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on 5 February 1985 in the São Pedro parish of Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese island of Madeira, and grew up in the nearby parish of Santo António. He is the fourth and youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Viveiros da Aveiro, who worked as a cook in the hospitality industry and a cleaning woman, and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener at the Junta de Freguesia of Santo António and part-time kit man for football club Andorinha. His great-grandmother on his father's side, Isabel da Piedade, an African woman, was born in the island of São Vicente, in what was then Portuguese Cape Verde, and moved to Madeira Island at 16. He has one older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia "Katia". He was named after actor and U.S. President Ronald Reagan, whom his father was a fan of.His mother revealed that she wanted to abort him due to poverty, his father's alcoholism, and having too many children already, but her doctor refused to perform the procedure.Ronaldo grew up in an impoverished Roman Catholic home, sharing a room with all his siblings.

PERSONAL LIFE OF RONALDO

Family | Children | Relationship

Ronaldo has five living children. He first became a father to a son, who was born on 17 June 2010 in the United States.He has full custody of the child and has not publicly revealed the identity of the mother per an agreement with her. In January 2015, Ronaldo's five-year relationship with Russian model Irina Shayk ended. Ronaldo became a father to twins, born on 8 June 2017 in the United States via surrogacy. He is currently in a relationship with Argentine-born Spanish model Georgina Rodríguez, who gave birth to a daughter on 12 November 2017.The couple expected another set of twins in 2022. The male twin died during childbirth while the female twin survived. Ronaldo's father, José, died of an alcoholism-related liver condition at age 52 in September 2005 when Ronaldo was 20. In January 2023, after Ronaldo moved to Saudi Arabia with his family having been signed by Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr, the rulers of the Kingdom made Ronaldo an exception to the rule that unmarried couples are not allowed to live together in Saudi Arabia. An unnamed Saudi lawyer told Spanish news agency EFE that "the laws of the Kingdom still prohibit cohabitation without a marriage contract", but Saudi authorities have begun to "turn a blind eye and stop prosecuting anyone, even though these laws are applied when there is a problem or a crime". Ronaldo is of (one-eighth) Cape Verdean descent through his great-grandmother. He is a Roman Catholic. After her son achieved legendary status in world football, Cristiano Ronaldo's mother, Dolores Aveiro, became a popular personality in Portugal to such an extent that advertising campaigns for well-known brands in the country, such as Maggi, MultiOpticas and Pingo Doce, have featured her in commercials.

STRUGGLES OF RONALDO

Health | Legal Issues

Ronaldo made the decision to be the greatest in the world at an early age despite growing up on an isolated island in a family that struggled to make ends meet and having a father who battled alcoholism. Like the majority of Europe, Madeira placed a high value on soccer, which Cristiano adored. Ronaldo has said that he does not drink alcohol, and he received libel damages over a Daily Mirror article that reported him drinking heavily in a nightclub while recovering from an injury in July 2008. He also does not have any tattoos as he regularly donates blood and bone marrow. In July 2017, Ronaldo was charged with fraudulently evading almost €15 million in tax between 2011 and 2014, a claim he denied at the time.In June 2018, Ronaldo was given a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined €18.8 million, later reduced to €16.8 million after reaching a deal with Spanish authorities. The sentence can be served under probation, without any jail time, so long as he does not re-offend. Ronaldo and another man were investigated by the British Crown Prosecution Service after a 2005 rape allegation was brought forward by two women. Within days, the two women withdrew their allegation and Scotland Yard later issued a statement declaring there was not enough evidence for a prosecution. In April 2017, it was reported that Ronaldo was being investigated by the Las Vegas Police Department for an allegation by a woman that he had raped her in 2009. Documents, confirmed by Ronaldo's lawyers, state that Ronaldo paid a woman US$375,000 in a non-disclosure settlement. Ronaldo and his lawyers issued a lengthy statement denying all accusations, describing them as an "intentional defamation campaign" with parts significantly "altered and/or completely fabricated", a claim which Der Spiegel categorically denied.In July 2019, Las Vegas prosecutors said they would not charge Ronaldo over allegations of rape; the statement added: "Based upon a review of information at this time, the allegations of sexual assault against Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt."The same woman, in September 2018, filed a civil lawsuit in Nevada accusing Ronaldo of rape. The Daily Mirror, citing court documents, reported in 2021 that the woman sought £56 million in damages from Ronaldo. In October 2021, federal magistrate judge Daniel Albregts recommended that the lawsuit be dismissed, citing that the woman's lawyer, Leslie Stovall, "acted in bad faith by asking for, receiving, and using Football Leaks documents to prosecute" the case, despite the documents containing "privileged communications" between Ronaldo and his lawyers. Additionally, Albregts stated that no evidence was found of Ronaldo's lawyers having "intimidated [the woman] or impeded law enforcement" during the 2010 settlement with her. In June 2022, the woman's rape lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, as district judge Jennifer A. Dorsey ruled that Stovall's repeated use of "cyber-hacked attorney–client privileged documents" were actions representing "abuses and flagrant circumvention of the proper litigation process".

WHY CRISTIANO RONALDO IS SO FAMOUS

PHILANTHROPY

Cristiano Ronaldo (born February 5, 1985, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal) is a Portuguese football (soccer) forward who is one of the greatest players of his generation. Ronaldo is the winner of five Ballon d’Or awards (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2017), and in 2024 he became the first men’s player to score 900 career goals in official matches. Ronaldo has made contributions to various charitable causes throughout his career. Television footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami showed an eight-year-old boy survivor named Martunis wearing a Portuguese football shirt who was stranded for 19 days after his family was killed. Following this, Ronaldo visited Aceh, Indonesia, to raise funds for rehabilitation and reconstruction. After accepting undisclosed damages from a libel case against The Sun newspaper in 2008, Ronaldo donated the damages to a charity in Madeira. In 2009, Ronaldo donated £100,000 to the hospital that saved his mother's life in Madeira following her battle with cancer, so that they could build a cancer centre on the island. In support of the victims of the 2010 Madeira flood, Ronaldo pledged to play in a charity match in Madeira between Primeira Liga club Porto and players from Madeiran-based clubs Marítimo and Nacional. In 2012, Ronaldo and his agent paid for specialist treatment for a nine-year-old Canarian boy with apparently terminal cancer. In December 2012, Ronaldo joined FIFA's "11 for Health" programme to raise awareness amongst kids of how to steer clear of conditions including drug addiction, HIV, malaria, and obesity. In January 2013, Ronaldo became Save the Children's new Global Artist Ambassador, in which he hopes to help fight child hunger and obesity. In March 2013, Ronaldo agreed to be the ambassador for The Mangrove Care Forum in Indonesia, an organisation aiming to raise awareness of mangrove conservation. Ronaldo was named the world's most charitable sportsperson in 2015 after donating £5 million to the relief effort after the earthquake in Nepal which killed over 8,000 people.In June 2016, Ronaldo donated the entirety of his €600,000 Champions League bonus after Real Madrid won the competition. In August of the same year, Ronaldo launched CR7Selfie, a selfie app for charity to help Save the Children that lets participants take a selfie with him in one of several different outfits and poses.

SPECTACULAR MOMENTS OF CRISTIANO RONALDO

SOCIAL MEDIA AND CRISTIANO

| INSTAGRAM | X(FORMERLY TWITTER) | YOUTUBE |

Ronaldo becomes first individual with one billion social media followers. Ronaldo surpasses 639 million followers on Instagram, 170 million on Facebook, 60 million on YouTube and 113 million on X.Cristiano Ronaldo became the first individual athlete to surpass 1 billion followers across social media, solidifying his status as the most influential athlete globally, just days after reaching 900 career goals on the football field. Listen to Story Cristiano Ronaldo continues to break records, not just on the football field but also in the digital world. The Portuguese talisman has become the first-ever individual to surpass 1 billion followers across all social media platforms. Widely regarded as the most influential and followed athlete globally, this milestone only solidifies Ronaldo's status as a global icon. Ronaldo's staggering social media following includes over 639 million followers on Instagram, 170 million on Facebook, 113 million on X (formerly Twitter), and 60.5 million subscribers on YouTube. Remarkably, his YouTube channel was only launched earlier this month, yet it reached 15 million subscribers on its first day and 50 million within the first week.

In Short

• Ronaldo became the first to reach 1 billion followers across all social media
• Ronaldo's YouTube channel reached 50 million subscribers within a week
• Ronaldo expressed gratitude to his followers in a special X post

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