Cristiano Ronaldo: Biography, Soccer Player, Al-Nassr Star

Cristiano Ronaldo is the first men’s soccer player to record 900 career goals. He currently plays for the Portuguese national team and the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr.
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Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is making it official with his longtime girlfriend, Georgina Rodríguez, as the couple announced their engagement August 11.
Rodríguez, a 31-year-old Spanish model, shared the news in an Instagram post. “Yes I do. In this and in all my lives,” the translated caption reads. That accompanied a photo of the massive diamond ring marking the occasion.
Neither Ronaldo, 40, nor Rodríguez has shared any details about the ornate accessory, but jewelry experts estimate the ring might be worth between $2 million and $5 million based on the picture.
The athlete and the model met in 2016 while she worked at a Gucci store in Madrid. The pair confirmed their relationship the following year and have been together since. They have four children together, including two born via surrogacy.
Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest athletes in the sport’s history, winning the Ballon d’Or five times and becoming the first player to score 900 career goals. Considered a phenom as a teenager, 16-year-old Ronaldo signed with Manchester United in a record deal for a player of his age. He set a franchise record for goals scored in 2008, before transferring to Real Madrid the following year. He has since played for Italian Serie A club Juventus and is currently on the Al-Nassr FC squad in Saudi Arabia. Among his many accomplishments, Ronaldo led his home country to an emotional victory in the 2016 European Championship.
FULL NAME: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos AveiroBORN: February 5, 1985BIRTHPLACE: Funchal, PortugalPARTNER: Georgina RodríguezCHILDREN: Cristiano Jr., Eva, Mateo, Alana, Bella, and ÁngelASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on February 5, 1985, in Funchal, Portugal, on the small island of Madeira off the country’s southwestern coast. He is the youngest of four children born to Maria Dolores dos Santos and José Dinis Aveiro. He was named after former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, one of his father’s favorite actors.
Ronaldo grew up in a largely working class neighborhood in a small tin-roofed home that overlooked the ocean. He was introduced to the game of soccer through his dad, who worked as an equipment manager at a boy’s club for a time.
His early life was shaped by hardship, as his father often drank too much. To help keep the children fed and maintain some financial stability, Ronaldo’s mother worked as a cook and cleaning person. The young athlete had often pushed for his father to enter rehab and address his drinking. His father, however, never accepted the offer.
By the time he was 10 years old, Ronaldo was already recognized as a phenom—a kid who ate, slept, and drank soccer. “All he wanted to do as a boy was play football,” his godfather, Fernao Sousa, recalled for British reporters, adding, “He loved the game so much he’d miss meals or escape out of his bedroom window with a ball when he was supposed to be doing his homework.”
By his early teens, Ronaldo’s talent and legend had grown considerably. After a stint with Nacional da liha da Madeira, he signed with Sporting Portugal in 2001.
In 2005, when Ronaldo was playing for Manchester United, his father died from alcohol-related kidney problems. The loss was especially hard for the then-20-year-old player, because he and his dad had been close. Two years later, Ronaldo’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her treatment was successful, though she faced a reoccurrence of the disease in 2019. Maria also had a stroke in 2020 that required surgery.
Ronaldo had turned heads with a mesmerizing performance with Portugal against Manchester United, wowing even his opponents with his footwork and deft skill. He made such an impression that a number of United players asked their manager to try and sign the young player, which the team soon did.
In 2001, Manchester United paid more than £12 million to sign Ronaldo, then just 16 years old. The deal, worth more than $14 million U.S. dollars, was a record fee for a player of his age.
Ronaldo didn’t disappoint: He showed his promise early on in the 2004 FA Cup final, scoring the team’s first three goals and helping them capture the championship. In 2007, Ronaldo signed a five-year, £31 million contract.
A year later, Ronaldo again justified his high salary when he put together one of the club’s finest seasons in history, setting a franchise record for goals scored (42) and earning himself the FIFA World Player of the Year honor for 2008. In all, Ronaldo helped steer Manchester United to three Premier League titles.
In 2009, the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid agreed to pay Manchester United a record $131 million for the chance to sign Ronaldo. Ronaldo’s commitment to Manchester United had come under constant question, and speculation swirled that he wanted to play elsewhere, so nobody was all that surprised to see Ronaldo leave.
“I know that they are going to demand a lot of me to be successful at the club, and I know that I’m going to have much more pressure than at Manchester United because I was there for many years,” Ronaldo told reporters. “But it means a new challenge and is going to help me be the best footballer.”
Ronaldo went on to compile an impressive list of individual honors and team trophies. In December 2016, he won his fourth Ballon d’Or award as the sport’s player of the year, beating out FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo’s 2016 wins included the European Championship, Champions League, and Club World Cup, plus individual awards from UEFA and France Football magazine. The following year, he claimed a fifth Ballon d’Or to tie the mark held by his longtime rival, Messi.
After dropping hints that his time with Real was coming to an end, Ronaldo confirmed the rumors in July 2018 by signing with Italian Serie A club Juventus, which paid a $140 million transfer fee to his old Spanish club.
Ronaldo paid tribute to Real fans in an open letter on the club’s website, writing: “These years at Real Madrid and in this city of Madrid have quite possibly been the happiest years of my life. I only have feelings of great gratitude to this club, to the fans and to the city. I can only give thanks to all of them for the love and affection that I have received.”
By most measures, Ronaldo’s debut season with Juventus was a successful one. He scored 10 times in his first 14 games and headed home the lone goal in a win over AC Milan for the Supercoppa Italiana trophy. After leading his club to its eighth consecutive Serie A title, he was named the league’s MVP in May 2019.
Although he left the team after 2008, Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in August 2021. However, his stay didn’t last long. In November 2022, the team announced it had reached a mutual agreement to terminate Ronaldo’s contract and that he had left the club effective immediately. The decision came after an eyebrow-raising TV interview with Piers Morgan in which Ronaldo said he “doesn’t respect” team manager Erik ten Hag.
The question of where the coveted free agent would play next lingered into the following month. Finally on December 30, 2022, the Saudi Pro League team Al-Nassr FC announced it had landed Ronaldo with a contract lasting through June 29, 2025. According to reports, the annual value of the deal was worth about $200 million, including a $75 million playing salary and the chance to earn the rest through commercial agreements.
“In Europe my work, it’s done. I won everything,” Ronaldo said of the move. “I played the most important clubs in Europe, and for me now, it’s a new challenge.”
Ronaldo made his debut with Al-Nassr in late January 2023 and scored a league-high 35 goals across his first season. In total, he has scored 99 goals in 111 matches with the club.
In August 2024, the star athlete said he plans to retire with the team within a couple years. But come May 2025, Ronaldo posted a cryptic social media message suggesting he was looking to sign with another club. Perhaps it was just a negotiation tactic. A month later, the club announced via the social media site X that Ronaldo had signed a two-year extension. “I’m happy, two years more. I want to fight with the best teams in Saudi [Arabia] to win the league,” he said in a video statement. According to reports, the deal is worth as much as $468 million per year.
On July 10, 2016, Ronaldo added an emotional victory to his collection. As his national team’s captain, Ronaldo led Portugal to the European Championship final against France.
Although he was sidelined after suffering a knee injury 25 minutes into the match, Portugal went on to win the championship title 1-0, their first international trophy. Ronaldo’s teammates said that he motivated them as team captain from the sidelines. “He gave us a lot of confidence and he said, ‘Listen people, I’m sure we will win this Euro, so stay together and fight for it,’” fullback Cedric Soares said after Portugal’s victory.
“This is one of the happiest moments in my career,” Ronaldo commented. “I’ve always said I wanted to win a trophy with the national team and make history. And I did it. Thank God, things went well for us.”
Ronaldo got off to a tremendous start at the 2018 World Cup, blasting home three goals in an opening draw versus Spain, before adding another versus Morocco to set a European record with his 85th international goal. However, he was held scoreless in a 2-1 loss to Uruguay in the knockout stage, after which he declined to comment on his future with the national team.
He returned for the 2022 World Cup but started on the bench for the team’s knockout games in the round of 16 and quarterfinals. Despite entering the latter match, Ronaldo couldn’t help the team erase a 1-0 deficit against Morocco.
Playing for Portugal on September 5, 2024, Ronaldo became the first men’s player to score 900 career goals across international and club play in a 2-1 UEFA Nations League win over Croatia. The following year, he helped lead Portugal to the Nations League championship, scoring in the final against Spain.
His contributions to his country have been memorialized in a bronze bust of Ronaldo at the airport in Madeira, Portugal.
Ronaldo, whose height is between 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-2 according to most estimates, has set numerous individual and league records during his career.
Of his 938 total goals as of June 8, 2025, he has scored 138 during official international competition—the most ever by any player. He is also the only player ever to score goals at five different World Cups.
Here are some of Ronaldo’s other noteworthy stats, with records in bold, according to the UEFA Champions League catalog:
Ronaldo’s fiancée is Spanish model Georgina Rodríguez. The pair were first seen together publicly around November 2016 and became an official couple the following year.
Although Rodríguez officially announced the couple’s engagement in August 2025, Ronaldo has already referred to Rodríguez as his wife in previous interviews.
Ronaldo and Rodríguez have four children together. In June 2017, the couple welcomed twins, a boy named Mateo and a girl named Eva Maria, via a surrogate. In November 2017, Rodríguez added to their family with the birth of another girl, Alana Martina, and the couple most recently had daughter named Bella in April 2022. Bella’s twin brother, Ángel, died shortly after birth.
Ronaldo’s eldest child, Cristiano Jr., was born to a former girlfriend in June 2010.
In 2018, police in Las Vegas reopened a 9-year old investigation into claims that Ronaldo had raped a woman in his hotel room. The accuser also filed a civil lawsuit against the star athlete.
The following summer, the district attorney for Clark County, Nevada, announced that he had reviewed the case and wouldn’t pursue criminal charges against Ronaldo.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ronaldo’s total fortune is estimated at around $1 billion as of June 2025.
In May 2025, Ronaldo topped Forbes’ annual list of the world’s highest-paid athletes for the fifth time. He brought in an estimated $275 million due mostly to his lucrative contract with Al-Nassr. Sportico pinned his earnings slightly lower at $260 million.
His long and profitable career has placed Ronaldo among the 50 highest-paid athletes of all time, per Sportico. The outlet ranked him third in its April 2025 list. Ronaldo’s $2.3 billion in inflation-adjusted career earnings was only surpassed by Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods.
He has used some of his wealth to invest in businesses. He promised more than $40 million to the development of the soccer video game UFL, which Ronaldo is also advising on. The The soccer star additionally wrote a check for Bioniq, a personalized supplement company.
Some of Ronaldo’s net worth can be traced back to his endorsement deals. One recent instance of his lending his celebrity for promotion has landed him in hot water. In November 2023, the athlete was sued over his support for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The class-action lawsuit seeks in excess of $1 billion from the soccer star. Ronaldo’s attempt to have the case dismissed was unsuccessful after a judge ruled against the motion in May 2024. No further updates are available as of May 2025.
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