Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo was born in São Pedro, Funchal, and grew up in the Funchal parish of Santo António,[4][5][6] as the youngest child of Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, a cook, and José Dinis Aveiro, a municipal gardener and a part-time kit man.[7] His second given name, "Ronaldo", was chosen after then-U.S. president Ronald Reagan.[8] He has one older brother, Hugo, and two older sisters, Elma and Liliana Cátia.[2] His great-grandmother on his father's side, Isabel da Piedade, was from São Vicente, Cape Verde.[9] Ronaldo grew up in a Catholic and impoverished home, sharing a room with his brother and sisters.[10]

As a child, Ronaldo played for amateur team Andorinha from 1992 to 1995,[11][12] where his father was the kit man,[13] and later spent two years with Nacional. In 1997, aged 12, he went on a three-day trial with Sporting CP, who signed him for a fee of £1,500.[14][15] He subsequently moved from Madeira to Alcochete, near Lisbon, to join Sporting's other youth players at the club's football academy.[16] By age 14, Ronaldo believed he had the ability to play semi-professionally, and agreed with his mother to cease his education in order to focus entirely on football.[17] While popular with other students at school, he had been expelled after throwing a chair at his teacher, who he said had "disrespected" him.[17] However, one year later, he was diagnosed with a racing heart, a condition that could have forced him to give up playing football. He underwent an operation in which a laser was used to cauterise the affected area of his heart; discharged from hospital hours after the procedure, he resumed training only a few days later.[18]