CRISTIANO RONALDO

07. CRISTIANO RONALDO

Cristiano Ronaldo was born on February 5, 1985, Madeira, Portugal.

Widely regarded as one of the premier talents in European football, Ronaldo originally played for Portuguese team Sporting Lisbon, a team famous for producing Real Madrid star Luis Figo.

Ronaldo's talents have been hailed in his homeland for over a decade - he was the subject of a transfer at the age at eight in his native island of Madeira. Ronaldo's first big move came at the age of 11 when club Nacional ran into trouble when paying Sporting Lisbon a £25,000 fee for defender Franco.

On August 15, 2001 he was handed his Sporting debut as a 16-year-old by then coach Laszlo Boloni against Second Division B side Atletico. His league debut saw him score twice in a 3-0 victory over Moreirense and then hit a late winner in a 2-1 defeat of Boavista.

He was soon to play a starring role for the Portuguese Under-17 side at the European Championships.

The 2002-3 season was his first full run in the side and his strength, skill and pace led to him becoming one of Europe's most coveted talents. His two-footedness and ability to play on either wing or as a support striker made him the ideal candidate for Sir Alex Ferguson in his search for support for Ruud Van Nistelrooy's goalscoring exploits.

Ferguson had been eyeing the player for a year when his hand was forced by interest from other leading European clubs in Real Madrid and Juventus into invoking United's close relationship with Sporting and splashed out £12.24m for the teenager, beating the British record set by Viana the year before.

Sporting were prepared to sell the player for such a price but they had wanted to keep him and had even cashed in Quaresma to Barcelona to retain Ronaldo's services. But the lure of Old Trafford was strong.

Able to use either foot and play on both sides of the pitch, he attracted the attentions of Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2003, when Sporting Lisbon beat Manchester United 3-1 in the inauguration of the Alvalade XXI stadium. Now playing his trade for the English giants, Ronaldo has earned a good amount of praise and criticism for his flashy style of play and dribbling tricks. He demonstrated these at the 2004 FA Cup final in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, scoring the first goal against Millwall.

Cristiano caught the attention of many - United players included - during the pre-season friendly which marked the opening of Sporting's new stadium, a game in which Ronaldo scored.

"After we played Sporting last week the lads in the dressing room talked about him constantly, and on the plane back from the game they urged me to sign him. That's how highly they rated him," revealed Sir Alex Ferguson at his signing press conference.

"It was only through our association with Sporting that they honored our agreement of months ago," Ferguson said.

""He is one of the most exciting young players I've ever seen, an extremely talented footballer. He's a two-footed attacker who can play anywhere up front: right, left or through the middle," he concluded.

Cristiano, who appeared 25 times for Sporting last season and scored three goals, added: "I am very happy to be signing for the best team in the world, and especially proud to be the first Portuguese player to join Manchester United.

"I look forward to helping the team achieve even more success in the years to come."

A young man named after an American president, he will hope to become one of United and Europe's precedent players.