Blog of the Orkut Man United Charity.

With PFA player of the year , PFA young player of the year , PFA fan’s player of the Year , UEFA runner up to European player of the year and 3rd in the World player of the year , and with 28 Goals in the season already which still has a good 3 months to go , we can arguably  come to the conclusion that Cristiano Ronaldo is indeed the best player in the world right now . And the fact that he is just 23 , makes us wonder how much more he can
show and how much better he can improve . It is remarkable ain’t it . With the goals , and the awards , and the wage rate at around 120 000 pounds a week  , and the “star” life , and the iconic image in the media  , it is very easy to say that  ” he is only lucky bugger ” ..

But to be a Ronaldo , you gotta be obsessed with winning and passionate about everything in football , and if we look back into his life ,one can feel the essence of romance , pain , aggression , courage , humility all over it .

Being born to a middle class family in a small island “madeira” in Portugal , Ronaldo , the youngest kid in the family was named after the former US president , Ronald Reagan . The boy was very thin , under weight and had a big heart for football and family . At 6 , the boy became a menace in the streets , who often could be found with a Football . Arlindo Andrade , a neighbor of Ronaldo , finds him obsessed with the football ,and says ” the ball
never touched the ground , it used to be in his head , or in his chest , or in his legs ” ..

For a six year old , he had mind blowing skills and mastered perfection . When his dad , who once worked in a local football club , names a fellow friend from the club as ronaldo’s god father , who would later go down as one of the key person’ in changing the fate of ronaldo ..

At 7 , he started training with Andorinha , a club in which his father was a kit man . And he became a key player who used to play everywhere for his team . 2 years into this , he slowly started to attract the attention in madiera , and his godfather signed him with nacional football club ..

Amidst of all these , the boy never bothered about any of this . After arriving from school  , his mother often complains that he hardly does any homework . The cheeky ronaldo usually tells them that there aint any homework and goes to play in the streets with barefoot and returns home at night .  With him being the youngest in the lot , and the most talented , people just couldn’t stop admiring him and trusting him . And the boy who simply loved the game  , did what he can do best .. to score goals .  to win .. Indeed that is his mantra  , he , according to his neighbors and those who has watched him at streets playing football , say  that he cries , not only when he misses a goal , but also when any one from his team  misses a goal .. One might wonder about how odd that would be . But
that is the secret for Ronaldo’s success .. The fact that he hated losing . Yes we all hate losing ,  But only few can  do everything to push a mountain to be the best . and to do that , there should be a consistent urge and it came with his emotions .

” I hate to lose , every one does , but i feel more sad when i lose than others .. I am not to be blamed , its in my blood , that is how my family is ” says ronaldo .
Around 1995 , Nacional the then club of ronaldo’ were to pay some large amount ( 21 thousand pounds ) to Sporting Club Of Lisbon , and they could not afford to pay due to their financial status .
That might have been the blessing in disguise for the young talented kid as he was being given a trail at Lisbon for a week ..
The Boy who has never been into a flight , is fascinated to train with Sporting Lisbon . He says ” I was out there right from the first moment and i wanted to impress them and win the game i played ” . Such was his confidence and such was the level of performance he put in for the trail , that sporting lisbon agreed to take him for the money which nacional owed to sporting to be washed out . 20 thousand pounds for a 11 year old kid ?

This might be such a wonderful thing to the footballer ronaldo , but this has to be the toughest for the boy who so loves his family has to come to part with his family  . His father who always wants him to be the best , his mother who , so hard working and so proud , with tears and his brother and sisters crying to see him off in the airport . And the boy himself , crying his heart out in the flight after taking off .

And life at Lisbon for the young ronaldo wasn’t no cake walk either . People laughing at him for his Madeira accent which according him is like a different language altogether , and the fact that he is very thin and could go down with a tackle . Such brutal challenges at that age , only egged him on ..No wonder the boo boys don’t get into his skin .
“With barely 15 euro’s per month , he could hardly spend anything “, says his mother , who used to send money and gifts for him very often . Such is the support he gets from a family who simply loves him .

Some might come to a conclusion that yeah , they have achieved something now , but ronaldo never did . He used  to work out day and night .On one such incidence , he was caught using the GYM at 2 am in the morning . It rings us the bell of how the boy sachin tendulkar used to practice in his team hotel at 3 am with a hanging ball . Ronaldo’ was no different . The hunger for performing , the desire to improve his physique and the dedicated hardwork did not go waste one little bit .

And the performance on the field was very good that he became the best player in their youth rankings . Soon  , he caught the attention of many players , Jose Mourinho , the former chelsea manager , one of them . ” It was a fine game between Lisbon and União de Leiria and ronaldo was running with the ball with such skills , and i said to my assistant  , There Goes the son of van basten . ” ” I did not know his name ,
He was playing as a striker , and was completely in control of what he was doing and also resembled van basten by looks ” says mourinho .

Indeed . At 16 the boy is maturing as a football player at his youth team , the consistent urge for working out on the gym and its no wonder that he made his debut later that year for the senior team of Sporting Lisbon ..
He became an instant sensation who made an impact every time he started playing . And back home his mother almost fainted when he scored 2 goals for his club for the first time . The performance on the field , and the family off the field was a stand out reason why he grew tough mentally ..

Then came the inagural exhibition game against ManUtd and the rest of the game was history in the making .
Often people think , Sir Alex Ferguson , might not have signed him if he hadn’t performed the way he did against us . But it is wrong .. There was already an agreement between both the clubs that ronaldo was heading to manutd the next season .. It was the decision to go for him which fergie had to make after witnessing such an elegant performance . And the tradition left by The Great Georgie Best , The Captain Marvel , The King Le Roi , And the Golden Ball David Beckham , came the once in a life time chance for the boy who always dreamt of being the best . Number Seven already , and expectations were sky high , but his debut for manutd were in the bench ..

It was a fantastic game against bolton , and united couldn’t break the dead lock .. The crowd were getting a bit restless , and there was the lack of enthu in the field .. You might try to have a word with them in the half time , or probably make few substitution , bring fresh legs , try new tactics , and fergie went for ronaldo …

Right from his first touch , to the initial push , the precision , the control , the dribbling , His first move was a magnificent cross out of nothing . There , the fans were ordered to wake up ! He  shook Bolton’s tired defense and won a penalty … We won in the end .. But the spark , the touch of light , the star was born ..

Their were games where he simply would do things which you have never seen with the football , you might ask yourself , isnt he getting enough of the ball ? but thats normal for him .

His first season as a red devil was very well planned by Sir Alex , as he used ronaldo when and where is needed and slowly helped ronaldo to grow as a player ..
Although ronaldo was a genius to his fans , he was largely criticised all over the world .. Some questioned his credentials , there were statements like ” Decent talent , selfish display , would do f*** all at such a physical league  ” ..
And he was settling slowly .. Although he didn’t do any wonder immediately ..
It was a tad sad that he was signed along with the bunch of players fergie bought , who all went down as sad miss’es !

The likes of kleberson , djemba djemba , david bellion .. Looked like 2004 season was going to go down the crap .
But to a fan like me who adored ronaldo since day one . It was just a perfect season .. A boy at such age , breathtaking skills with his feet , taking defenders !

I still remember the game we played against liverpool .. Cristiano ronaldo was starting the game  , there was this phase in the game , where he won the ball in the middle of our ball , holding it , running , looking to create space , but there were just too many liverpool players everywhere crowded around him . He slowly turned his direction and moved the other way near the left wing and made a cut in , and beat three defenders on his pace and made a thunderous shot which hit the goal post from like 35 metres ! and i was like WOAH !
It was sad that his goal scoring record wasn’t any great in his first season . But the effort was there ..
A good FA cup finals and he saw his first trophy with us ! He put on a great show in the finals , with the roulettes , and a goal to cap it off .

Then there was the EURO 2004 . It is as if its been yesterday , portugal playing sad football against greece who are trailing by a goal to nil . And the entire crowd who had been chanting ronaldo ronaldo finally got what they wished . Although it was just few minutes he came in , some might have crumbled to the pressure , but he did not .

Scoring in the other games , like the one against netherlands and converting from every penalty which he had to take , and some sensational performance against the likes of england . Ronaldo was Internationally more consistent .. He started scoring goals for his country … Although euro 2004 ended in tears for ronaldo . It made him a wiser player . Ronaldo for portugal - post 2004 , had scored more goals than any one for portugal in their
next two years . And that is an astounding fact for the then 19 year old .

His second season with United was a bit different . For one that it had wayne Rooney entering into the mancunian army … but the other being the wild goal scarcity we faced all season . We were fantastic in the CL . But domestically the goals were dried . We missed RUUD due to injury in the first month , and rooney didn’t play untill the mid european group stage game .

It was a disappointing season . Ronaldo was decent . Not anywhere near what i imagined him to do .

As a fan , you have to go through few stages . I faced a lot of them being a ronaldo .. especially for the fact that  the ” going down easily ” when they were translated to DIVING , and CHEATING , by the rivals , it would hurt a lot . He did go down a lot easily in his first two seasons . But that is where FERGIE played a big role in the boy’s career !

I always thought the bet fergie and rondo had ever since his first season , was more to do with making the boy feel at home and play with the pride of wearing the manutd jersey . With Sir Alex and a captain like KEANO , i had no doubt that ronaldo would stop diving . So for me , the glimpses of brilliance always made me to sit on the edge of the seat and cheer my hero with all the might , no matter what the rivals say and boy didn’t he come out and answer every one single critic of em all ?

The third season , i would say was the most disasterous season and character testing one ronaldo has faced in his life .
He was first accused for alledgely raping a woman ( for which he was later found not guilty after a DNA test ) and a month later while with the portuguese squad which was
in russia ,  had to hear it from his scolari the portuguese national team coach , that his father , the man who wanted ronaldo to be what he is right now , the man who encouraged him ever since he was 5 , had died .
First test of character came when he was asked by scolari , to whether remain with the squad or return to portugal .

But the boy who i always knew for being made up of character , stayed and played the game against the uzbeks and scored .

And with Roy Keane leaving , Alan smith getting injured against liverpool , and the passing of The Great Georgie best , the 2005/2006 season was a disaster if you are a manc .

And Ronaldo had his bad form which resulted in a row with ruud van nistelroy for a row in training . Some said , that’s it for both of em . Only one could play in the club . And with Saha blooming , we had to see the end of RUUD !

And the world cup arrived  , and we all know what happened and let me not waste the time in how and what happened between ronaldo and rooney . To me , ronaldo has always been a committed professional for his team . I See the same with Wayne Rooney and if ronaldo had done something like that on steven gerrard or some one , rooney would ve asked the ref to send ronaldo off .. As that is how players play for their country .

But technically on the field , Ronaldo had one of the best tournaments of his life . To put all the disappointments out of his mind , right from the death of his father to the row with ruud van nistelroy , to take portugal to semifinals , single handedly . Yes , he did not score many goals . ? so ? If you consider goal scoring ratio , look at zidane then ?

It was disappointing to see podolski getting the award , but ronaldo there , has turned into a major character !

With one year of complete disappointment and sheer hardwork , and united played with Giggs and Oshea in the Central Midfield to finish the season in second !

Ronaldo was wanted by real madrid . Who wouldn’t want ronaldo ?
Fergie tried to call ronaldo ever since the world cup incident , but ronaldo had changed his number and hadn’t recv’ed any phone call and he tought he was left out of the plans as there wasn’t any word from his club .
It looked as though the end of such 3 beautiful years as a ronaldo fandom was almost going to end .

I ve not seen a player who could bring so much joy , so much enthusiasm into any game like Ronaldo have . It was a disaster if he was going to leave .
And thank god , that Fergie spoke with Carlos Queiros and met Ronaldo and the season which followed was magic .
Totally magic .
United played the best football we played in the last four years , with ronaldo playing on top of his game .
To the Rest of the world , it was like a shock . But for me , it was coming . The boy from his Andorinha days , the boy always dreamt of the same . To score goals , to win games , to be the best player in the world .And he was instrumental in helping us get the 16th title in our history . By scoring 24 goals in one single season .

If last season was extra ordinary , then this season is undescribable. He already has 30 goals to his name and it is only february still . If he is going to continue scoring at this rate , we could see him touch the magical 35 goal barrier which would be impossible to touch by any other midfielder in the premier league for some time to come atleast .

As a fan ,  i would like to see ronaldo improving against the big teams , not that he has been poor against them , i ve seen him rip the same arsenal’s defence in the FA cup finals in the 05 season , as well as been a big impact player against the milan at OT . Yes , he can improve more on these games , against the best of the defenders , but as long as he plays to his heart , his desire would push him and we can’t forget that he is just 23 !

From here , Ronaldo ’s career looks brilliant at such young age  .
Even though i wish he would play with United for all his life , i do not see that coming . I sincerely hope that he would play for another five to six seasons at United . Winning everything he can with us . and prove the world that , its not the style of football which matters , but it is the trophies which are the ultimate goal for any footballing team .

It really doesn’t matter if Ronaldo would end up being the greatest ever footballer , but , he will go down in history as one of the sensational players . From the days of his life when he had to play as a slim 7 year old , to a well build unstoppable player in the world . Ronaldo has indeed been a boy , who had a sensational dream , with a character of a true hero who was born on this planet to play the football .