have been forgiven for thinking that he would enjoy a lengthy stint at the club, furthering his football education. His school education had long since been discarded as a lower priority. Those who knew him well advised him to follow his football dreams – he had a gift for football, not further education. But to Ronaldo’s surprise, his youth career in Madeira came to an abrupt end when he was just 12 years old. After just two years with Nacional, he was on his way to the mainland, heading for Lisbon. While Porto and Boavista had also expressed admiration for Cristiano, Nacional owed money to Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon for a player called Franco and, rather than pay the debt, the island club opted to send Ronaldo, in whom Sporting were interested after a short trial. For the youngster, it was a big decision to make and Nacional probably thought they had only let a fairly promising player leave – there would be plenty more like him, they reasoned. But if there is one thing to say about Ronaldo, it is that there is no one like him.
This was a major transition in his life. It would have been a big moment for any player but for a 12-year-old it was monumental. He had to leave Madeira and his family behind and enter an unfamiliar city on the mainland. He told the documentary Planeta Ronaldo (aired on Portuguese TV), ‘It was very traumatic to leave my family. I had never even been on an aeroplane before. When I saw my mother crying at the airport, it made me want to cry as well.’ He could never have imagined leaving home at such a young age and it was all very hard to take in. Part of him knew it would benefit his quest to become a professional footballer, but another part feared the heart-wrenching absence of the comfort blanket that his family provided.
Alone in Lisbon, he experienced the most emotionally testing years of his life. It is a moving story of the sacrifices necessary to forge a career in sport and a reality check for those that think everything comes easily for professional footballers. Lisbon was louder, busier and more threatening than Ronaldo had anticipated, and his team-mates struggled to understand his accent, inevitably leading to teasing and the feeling of being an outsider. He struggled to understand and be understood. He lived with 10 other young hopefuls in accommodation provided by the club but it was a far from easy transition.
Lisbon presented dangers, too. It could be a scary place for a young boy, especially at night. In his documentary, Ronaldo recalls one particular incident that took place on the city’s busy roads, ‘A gang jumped on me and my team-mates in the street. The other players ran away but I stood up and fought – and the robbers didn’t get anything.’ Apparently, Cristiano was elusive and unstoppable even at that age!
With his family miles away, he suffered desperately from homesickness and recalls the anguish of watching his credit tick down in the phone box. For someone so attached to his family it was a tough beginning to his Lisbon adventure, and a period that taught him a lot about survival. His determined, ambitious streak was tested to the full when times were tough. His godfather, Sousa, recalls a time when Ronaldo came back from Lisbon and had no intention of returning. Cristiano had had enough of that lifestyle and he wanted to move back to Madeira. Sousa spoke with Ronaldo’s parents and urged them to persuade him to go back to Sporting, knowing that his godson had a big future in football and could not throw in the towel yet.
Sporting did all they could to make Cristiano feel comfortable in Lisbon. Sensing that homesickness was eating away at their young player, they were as accommodating as they could be, paying for Dolores, Ronaldo’s mother, to fly to visit him. His family had always played a huge role in his life and it was a tactic that succeeded for Sporting, who were close to releasing Cristiano due to his unhappiness. Dolores gave Ronaldo a huge boost, making him more cheerful, confident and settled. It was a reassuring reminder of home and the pride felt by all his family and friends.
Ronaldo explains in his documentary: ‘There were a lot of tears in my first few weeks in Lisbon. Madeira is so small. I couldn’t believe the traffic and noise of a capital city. I used to call my family whenever I could.’ Cristiano was forced to become independent and fend for himself. While he had plenty of senior figures to turn to at the club, he was largely left to make his own decisions. It was a testing time, but it was pivotal in Ronaldo’s development.
The desire to win – ingrained in him from his earliest days in football – kept him going. As he puts it in Planeta Ronaldo, ‘No matter how bad things got, I had this burning dream.’ He would not let any obstacle block his path. Having overcome the homesickness, there was a sense that he had beaten the most challenging opponent and that stardom and the Sporting senior team now beckoned. He was still physically small and very skinny but he had pace and skill – vital commodities for any winger. A former coach remembers not only Ronaldo’s will to win but also the effect that he had on his team-mates. Ronaldo cried, shouted and fussed when results did not go his team’s way, but this reaction appeared to energise his colleagues, getting a reaction from them and inspiring them to follow his example on the pitch.
Cristiano’s competitive nature is also confirmed by Portuguese international goalkeeper Ricardo, in his book Diary of a Dream, ‘Whether it is ping-pong, table football, darts or snooker, he does not let up. If there are people who were born for the game and for competition, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of them.’ Ricardo spent a good deal of time experiencing Ronaldo’s desire for victory during the Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006 campaigns, and is a good source for learning about Cristiano’s character traits. With a squad spending so much time together during major tournaments, everyone becomes very familiar with each other.
The path to the first-team at Sporting had certainly not been mapped out for him, despite his obvious ball skills. A growth spurt had left Cristiano with an awkward physique, not necessary well suited to a career as a professional footballer, and he had to work hard to strengthen his body. The coaches were not sure he would survive against tough opponents who were determined to slow Ronaldo down any way they could. Cristiano knew that he had to toughen up if he wanted to win a regular role in the first team and he applied himself to this task as ably as he had to all the obstacles he had faced in life.
He was earning about the equivalent of £170 a week and the management were very impressed with his development. His rapid rise to stardom in Lisbon set a record at the club: he became the first player in Sporting’s history to play for the under-16s, 17s, and 18s, B-team and first-team in a single season. It told the story of the impact Cristiano was having in training and in matches. His coaches were constantly promoting him to a higher age group because he displayed all the qualities required to progress. It forced Ronaldo to learn quickly, but also gave him the confidence to express himself freely.
But while his professional career was on the up, his personal life was not so rosy. His unhappiness at being away from home was increased by news that his older brother, Hugo, was battling drug addiction. Dolores had funded one stint of treatment with the money from her cleaning job but it had not solved the problem, and Cristiano became extremely worried.
His wage at Sporting was enough that he could offer to fund a second spell of treatment for his brother in the hope that it would straighten him out. Hugo went to a clinic in Lisbon where he made crucial progress on the road to recovery. Had Ronaldo not been a footballer, it is unlikely the family could have afforded more treatment for Hugo. It was a desperate time but Hugo’s recovery gave the story a happy ending. This predicament back in Madeira made Ronaldo feel even more detached from his family and he wished he could be there more often to support Hugo. With Dinis still drinking heavily, it all had an impact on Cristiano’s state of mind.
Ronaldo had supported Benfica as a boy but this had been complicated by his move to rivals Sporting – the Benfica fans would never let him forget it. The 2002/03 season saw him break into the first team at Sporting – a reward for the effort he had made to overcome his early problems. It spoke volumes for his commitment to his profession that he endured the harsh assimilation stage of his football education in Lisbon and emerged as such an immensely talented player. With Ronaldo’s incredible natural talent, it is easy to assume that he did not have to work as hard to break through as a professional footballer. This is certainly not the case and anyone who has seen how hard he works on the training ground would not dare to make such an assumption. Many people made the same misjudgement over Ryan Giggs and Eric Cantona, who actually worked just as hard as anyone else.
His emergence as a first-team player for Sporting