The 'little bee' who always cried - the story of young Ronaldo’s path to greatness in Madeira Cristiano Ronaldo has made great str...
The 'little bee' who always cried - the story of young Ronaldo’s path to greatness in Madeira
Cristiano Ronaldo has made great strides. 2016's European Champion for both club and country, the 31-year-old forward is enjoying a better life after signing a new deal with Real Madrid and winning the Ballon d'Or for the fourth time.
However, things haven't always been this fantastic. Unexpectedly born, Baby Cristiano was the youngest member of a modest family on the Portuguese island of Madeira. He was born on February 5th, 1985 in Santo Antonio, one of the most underprivileged areas of Funchal's capital city and a mountainous area.
The family's newest member, a son named Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, was born to Dolores, a cook, and Dinis, a municipal gardener. Ronaldo was chosen as a nickname in honor of Ronald Reagan, who was the president of the United States at the time.
For the young Cristiano, football was a way of life. Father Dinis, an alcoholic who tragically died of liver disease in 2005, was a hitman at the neighborhood club Andorinha. He asked Fernao Barros Sousa, a player there who had previously played for the island's top team, Nacional, whether he would be Ronaldo's godfather.
"I became Cristiano Ronaldo's godfather because I played for Andorinha, where I met his father, Dinis, and so when Cristiano Ronaldo was born, he asked me if I would be the godfather at his baptism," Barros Sousa said in Madeira to Goal.
"On that particular day, Andorinha had a game at Ribera Brava, so I went there with Dinis, and we got to the baptism a lot later—so late that the priest didn't want to baptize him! The priest had to be persuaded to baptize him, which is what happened. It's funny how we weren't there when it was ready to begin. It was awful!"
Later on, Ronaldo would go with his father, and once he was old enough, he eventually joined Andorinha's youth team.
"When he was little, he was just like other kids," Barros Sousa said. But he stood out from the crowd because he played a lot of football, which set him apart from the rest. even as a small child. He put his studies on the back seat so that he could play football while the other youngsters were studying.
"When his father worked as Andorinha's kitman, you could see it. Cristiano would be with his father, a ball in hand, playing with the ball, and he had the bags with the footballs. He attempted to dribble and clearly imitated the more experienced players. He frequently did that.
Around the age of eight, Cristiano started playing for Andorinha, his first club, and it was immediately clear that he had talent.
Former teammate and current Andorinha coach Ricardo Santos recalled their age as being between eight and nine years old to Goal. What I recall about Cristiano Ronaldo is that he was a humble young man, and he was already a terrific player at that point. And he sobbed when he lost the ball. He sobbed while his teammates fought. But he was already a competent athlete. He possessed excellent dribbling ability, was faster than the typical player, and had already scored a number of goals.
Santos stated that "Cristiano really liked winning." "Ronaldo cried when that didn't happen. His 'crybaby' moniker reflected how emotional he was.
Rui, a groundskeeper who was also a member of the team at the time, has happy memories of Ronaldo and talks highly of the four-time Ballon d'Or winner.
"When he initially arrived here, he was around seven or eight. He said, "He came with his father. "It wasn't simple to take the ball away from him. Even though he was extremely small, he was constantly playing football. He didn't ever quit. He never stopped playing, even at home.
Back then, Andorinha primarily competed in seven-a-side games, and Ricardo specifically remembers one encounter in which Cristiano was ejected at halftime.
He was virtually always our top scorer, but I can't recall how many, according to Santos. "I recall a match we played in Camara de Lobos back then. When Cristiano Ronaldo left the game injured, we were leading 3-0 and lost 4-3.
He continued, "Ronaldo was called 'abelhinha' (little bee) because he was small and very quick, so we called him 'abelhinha'."
Thus, the same individual who served as Cristiano's godfather at his christening in 1985 also had a significant impact on the young footballer's professional career.
His skill was recognized in Madeira, according to Pedro Talinhas, a former youth coach at Nacional, who spoke to Goal. "The club employees and scouts thought he was the best youth in Madeira. Even though he was still a young man, people could tell he had something special.
At the age of 10, he came at Nacional. He was a player with excellent technical skill and excellent footwork. Although little, he was incredibly technical. We could tell that his goal was to score beautiful goals back then, as well as many other traits you see in him today.
He was quick, excellent with a gun, and already strong.
Due to his exceptional abilities, Ronaldo frequently faced up against lads from the more experienced teams while playing seven-a-side and then 11-a-side at Nacional.
I was Ronaldo's coach during his second season at Nacional, Talinhas recalled. He was the team captain, and although being a junior in his first year, he frequently played against boys who were three years older than him and frequently stood out even then.
"You could see that he was a young man with enormous talents and potential. He could accomplish a lot if he put in the effort and persisted in having that determination. Could we then determine how far he would go? No. He simply has enormous talent and promise. He might advance level by level by working hard and seizing his opportunity.
And indeed, that is what would occur. Cristiano was Madeira's top athlete at that point. But not even a single Portuguese international or one of the best players in the world has ever come from the island. This made it difficult to imagine at the moment. But Ronaldo would not hesitate for long before moving forward once more.
Local magistrate Joao Marques de Freitas, a socio of Sporting CP and a man with numerous connections at the Lisbon-based team, was introduced to Cristiano by Barros Sousa.
"We met with the boy, but I had never seen him play football," he admitted to Goal. "What transpired? His godfather praised him as being exceptionally good. Although I'm not a coach, I called Sporting scout Aurelio Pereira, who has a keen eye for identifying young players who go on to have successful careers. I called him and informed him that we were hosting a boy who is reportedly very good.
"And he told me, 'Let's see if we can bring him over here. Dolores confirmed her answer when I spoke to her later that day, so I took responsibility for it. I purchased a ticket to Lisbon from Funchal.
"He left on a Saturday, and Aurelio told me three days later that the youngster was pretty good. He was so skilled that the experts came over to assess the young player's abilities while it was still the old Sporting stadium.
Ronaldo went to the Portuguese city at the age of 12 because Sporting was impressed. All by himself. However, initially, there were issues.
Because Madeirans pronounce words considerably differently from Lisbonans, De Freitas claimed that it was quite difficult for him to adapt to Lisbon. He resisted when they teased him about his issues at school and laughed at him. He briefly considered leaving, but thankfully he persisted. He experienced a difficult period.
In fact, at one point Ronaldo was dissatisfied on the mainland and Sporting sent him back to Funchal. And that was practically the end of his ambition to become a professional football player.
He returned to Madeira in the second year, according to Barros Sousa. "Sporting sent him over because they didn't want a player who was dissatisfied or didn't want to be there. He was therefore transported to Madeira.
"At that point, I had to step in and remind them that he needed to play for Sporting in Lisbon since he represented their family's future. And that's what took place. In the first training session in Lisbon, the coach Osvaldo Silva, who is no longer with us, informed me that he was a diamond, which convinced me that he had a bright future as a football player. That only strengthened my belief that he was in the right place.
Ronaldo went back and never looked back, fitting in both on and off the field as he developed his abilities in one of the best football academies in Europe.
Goalkeeper Christopher Almeida de Pilar told Goal that the player "was accustomed to being there when I got there." "When he first arrived at age 11, he had already forged friendships. His friends were there. They would all go together, sit together, and live together in the Sporting apartment, which was below the stadium, as I recall. They would all go together to a restaurant in Lisbon adjacent to the Jose Alvalade stadium for lunch. They lived as a unit. I believe he first struggled with it, but I was not present.
Pilar, who played with Cristiano in Sporting's juvenile squads as well as for Portugal's junior national team, claims that Ronaldo's drive to get better set him apart from other players.
He stated, "I always believed that we had a number of outstanding youngsters in the Sporting Academy. "But Ronaldo was unique due to all the effort he made, not just during training sessions but also afterward. He always stayed to drill for an additional 30 minutes on the topics he found most challenging.
"When I came at the age of 13, he exuded a level of authority far above that of the rest of his staff. He was superior to everyone else in his approach to training, teammate motivation, teammate correction, and determination to win and impress.
"All of us desired to play football and win the approval of our parents. But not him—his goal was to win over not just his family but also everyone who saw him.
After spending just one season with Sporting's first team, Ronaldo made another advancement by joining Manchester United after putting on a strong display in a pre-season friendly against Sir Alex Ferguson's club in Lisbon.
He played for Sporting against Manchester United in the opening game of the new Alvalade stadium, according to De Freitas, who was at the game's field. And he put on a football exhibition during the first half.
That game was won by Sporting 3-1. Although he failed to score, he gave them the runaround. They yelled "Cristiano" at him at halftime because of how much they cared. He then signed with Manchester United three days later.
From modest beginnings, Cristiano reached one of the top clubs in the world by the age of 18, and former teammate Santos said: "As soon as he joined Manchester United, everyone started to see his true importance. Since then, Ronaldo has, in my opinion, shocked everyone.
"To think that one day he would be the best player in the world and two or three times, we couldn't have imagined that," the former coach Talinhas continued. He had a lot of talent. However, we have all been taken aback.
Barros Sousa still occasionally meets his godson and stated: "Occasionally, I travel to Madrid to see a Real Madrid game. It gives me a lot of satisfaction. It makes me really happy. Naturally, I enjoy watching him play and watching him score goals. It makes me feel very proud to see him win championships, both individually and collectively.
De Freitas meets him as well, and the latest time was in July when Ronaldo visited Funchal again. He is a good man and a devoted family man who never forgets them. Additionally, he has assisted a lot of individuals here.
Talinhas continued, "I believe we should be grateful to Cristiano Ronaldo since he is a global icon who always has a special passion for his homeland, his island, and the place where he was born. We are quite happy with him.
However, in the mountains of Andorinha, pictures of a young Cristiano continue to adorn the stadium fences, serving as a constant reminder of the club's connection to a player who went on to make it big beyond the Atlantic island and left his humble beginnings behind to become one of the greatest footballers of all time. Ronaldo, of course, has now opened a museum and a hotel in Madeira.
Every child who plays here dreams of being like Ronaldo, according to groundskeeper Rui. "They aspire to emulate him. They are all.
But here in Madeira, there won't be another Ronaldo. There won't be anymore after this one.