11 Things You Didn’t Know About Cristiano Ronaldo

As one of the most talented and successful athletes in the world, Ronaldo was born February 5 1985, and he started playing football at an early age. This soon became his only focus as he started playing semi-professionally as a young teenager. He was signed by Manchester United in 2003 at the age of 18 and helped the team to win three consecutive Premier League titles in 2009. His transfer to Real Madrid which was worth $132 million, was the most expensive association football transfer that. He has won numerous awards and set a long list of records in his football career. He’s the top score in Real Madrid’s history with 372 goals in 360 appearances. In 2016, he was named FIFA as the best player in the world for the fourth time, and he was granted a contract extension that ensures he’ll be paid over $50 million a year until 2021. Love him or hate him. You can’t deny that Cristiano Ronaldo is incredibly successful in the world of football and beyond. his salary and endorsement deals have given him a net worth of $400 million. His ability to capitalize on his skills and his marketability along with his confidence, drive and passion are a source of inspiration.

1. Ronaldo was the third athlete ever to sign a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike.

In 2016, Ronaldo signed a lifetime endorsement deal with Nike making him only the third athlete in addition to Michael Jordan and LeBron James to have made such a deal. He has been sponsored by Nike since 2003 and has worn more than 60 versions of Nikes Mercurial football cleats, but this agreement ensures that he’ll be receiving millions of dollars from Nike even after he retires. The deal is expected to earn Ronaldo $1 billion in his lifetime, and that is the single largest sponsorship deal in the world for a sports star.

2. Named after Ronald Reagan.

His parents decided to name him after Ronald Reagan because they thought the name sounded strong and he was one of his dad’s favourite actors. Reagan was the US president when Ronaldo was born in 1985.

3. He is the highest-paid athlete and fifth highest-paid celebrity in the world.

Ronaldo tops Forbes list of highest-paid ads athletes in 2017 with $93 million total income, of which 35 million came from endorsements. He ranks fifth on the list of all the world celebrities behind Diddy, Beyonce, JK Rowling and Drake.

4. Expelled from school.

Ronaldo admits he was not a good student because he wasn’t interested in school. When he was a teenager he got expelled after throwing a chair at his teacher who he said disrespected him. Rather than enrolling a different school, his mother decided he should focus on football only, and at the age of 14, he started playing semi-professionally. 

5. He owns about 20 cars worth a total of $5 million.

The cars in his $5 million collection include a Bugatti Veyron, Lamborghini, Aventador, Ferrari 599 GTO, Ferrari laferrari, Rolls Royce, Ghost McLaren mp4 12,  Mercedes Benz s 65, AMG Coupe, Bentley Continental GT,  speed Porsche 911 Turbo S, Aston Martin DB nine, Masai grande cabrio, Bentley Continental GTC, Audi R eight, Ferrari 599 GTV and a Porsche 911 Carrera S cabriolet.

6. He has a $14 million mansion in Madrid.

The 8600 square foot mansion has seven bedrooms, eight bathrooms. Many football pitches and a trophy room, a gym, an indoor pool and a playroom. In the yard, there is a pool with his initials painted on the bottom, luxurious lounge areas and professional landscaping.

7. He met his girlfriend at adult chat and Gabbana event.

Ronaldo has dated a lot of girls than you can imagine. Since 2002, the Portugal international has had more than 20 girlfriends. But then he met model Georgina Rodriguez and started dating in 2016. And after only a brief time dating, she became pregnant with what would be his fourth child. He also has twins named Ava and Matteo that were born to a surrogate mother in America in June of 2017. And a seven-year old son named Kris Jenner Ronaldo Jr, as well, as the pair reportedly met in the VIP section of a Dolce and Gabbana event, and then secretly dated for a time before making the relationship public.

8. Racing Heart

He had a career-threatening heart condition at age 15. He was faced with the reality that he might have to give up playing football. He had a racing heart, which meant that his heart was beating faster than usual. Even when he was sitting still, this could have been very dangerous in a game situation where his heartbeat would be even more elevated. It could have easily led to a heart attack. A laser operation was performed to fix the problem area, and Ronaldo was back at training just a few days later.

9. He donates blood regularly.

Unlike many of his fellow football stars, Ronaldo refuses to get a tattoo because it might interfere with him being able to donate blood, which he likes to do at least twice a year. He also became a bone marrow donor when his teammate told him about his son that was struggling with leukaemia in 2011. And he encourages everyone to join him and helping others in this way.

 10. He paid for a child’s life-saving brain surgery.

Ronaldo has been very charitable with his money over the years. In 2009, he donated about $130,000 to the hospital that saved his mother’s life when she had cancer. He also sold the golden booty won in 2011 for over $1.7 million and donated the proceeds to fund schools for children in Gaza. In 2014, he received a letter from the parents of a boy with brain cancer, who asked him to donate a football shirt and boots to a charity auction to raise money for the boy’s surgery. Instead, Ronaldo paid for the $65,000 operation and a series of additional treatments that cost $65,000 each. 

11. Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record of being the player who attracted the highest number of spectators on the day of his presentation

When Cristiano Ronaldo was presented by Florentino Perez as a Real Madrid player, the Santiago Bernabeu stadium counted almost 80,000 fans. This saw CR9 surpassing Diego Maradona’s record of 75,000 fans when the Argentine legend was presented as a Napoli player in 1984.