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Cristiano Ronaldo (full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro; born February 5, 1985, Madeira, Portugal) is a Portuguese footballer who was bought by Manchester United in 2003 for £12.24m.
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.
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. Now plying 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.
Ronaldo made his international debut in August 2003, versus Kazakhstan. He scored Portugal's only goal in its stunning 2-1 loss to Greece in the opening match of EURO 2004 and keeps stunning the european audiences with his amazing performances in the tournament.
Actually 19 year old, Ronaldo seems to be following the steps of great predecessor Figo (31), whose position on the pitch, style and tactic importance and original club he has earned. One of the most touching moments on the tournament was the symbolic "generation swap" between Ronaldo and Figo, as the first substituted the second against Russia, from whom he got the inspiring motivation "Força"
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