Ronaldo

by Luca Caioli

  They find him in the gym at 1am lifting weights without permission. He does press-ups and sit-ups in the dorm and trains with weights around his ankles to improve his dribbling. When his team-mates head for the showers after training sessions, he stays on the pitch, practising free kicks against a wall of life-sized targets. He eats two bowls of soup with every meal because they have told him that he plays well but he’s too thin.

  On Sundays he’s the ‘ball boy’ when Sporting play at home, retrieving the ball when it goes out of play. He gets to see some of the club’s greatest players up close, feel the atmosphere at the ground, and earn five Euros. At the end of each match he and his team-mates pool their money and go to the pizzeria. They buy one pizza and get two more to take home.

  His first salary at Sporting amounts to ten Contos a month, around 50 Euros. It’s enough to cover the textbooks, exercise books and backpack he needs for school, as well as clothes and daily spending money. But one day Dolores calls the club to inform them that ‘Ronaldo didn’t buy his lunch at the canteen, he spent all his money on chocolate.’ It’s funny because, although he has been forced to grow up quickly and leave his childhood behind, he is still just a kid. ‘I regret not having really enjoyed my childhood,’ he will say years later in an interview just before the South African World Cup.

  He is expected to behave like an adult, living autonomously and taking responsibility for all his own washing and ironing. He is there to be a footballing apprentice, not a child. He is also forced to face the reality of his family’s problems. At fourteen, Cristiano is aware that his father Dinis is a chronic alcoholic and that his brother Hugo is a drug addict. He is shocked, but he can’t let it overwhelm him. His older brother is admitted into a rehab clinic in Lisbon, and after various relapses he manages to get clean. His father, on the other hand, does not.

  Luckily, life at the academy begins to improve. ‘Thanks to his extraordinary talent and hard work he began to adapt to his new life and become the centre of the team,’ says Pontes, his tutor. ‘The other players began to pass him the ball because they knew he was the best.’

  He’s a leader on and off the pitch. In the documentary Planet Ronaldo, aired on the Portuguese TV channel Sic, Pontes narrates that on one occasion when Cristiano and three team-mates were mugged by a gang on the street in Lisbon, he was the only one who didn’t try to run away, despite being the youngest. He fought back to defend what little money they had in their wallets. The muggers dispersed without any cash.

  The Sporting youth academy doesn’t just take care of its promising young players on the training ground. It provides them with a tutor so that they can excel in the Crisfal local day school. Ronaldo loves football but going to school is more of a hobby. He likes science but can’t stand English. He is a decent student and does the bare minimum, but football, friends and work experience as a ball boy distract him from his school work. In the end, he has to choose between sport and his studies. He speaks to his mother and makes a decision: he will drop out of the ninth grade.

  The club’s directors try to help young players overcome any issues of acclimatisation, offering counselling with a psychologist. They also maintain a strict discipline policy. Ronaldo has not forgotten what it was like to feel the force of that discipline in his youth team days.

  In the final round of the championship Sporting has to face Marítimo, the team from Cristiano’s home town. The chance to return to his island, his town, to the stadium where he played his first matches – to see his whole family and his school friends – is more than he could have hoped for.

  But Cristiano has been behaving badly at school and the directors decide to punish him where it really hurts. He won’t be going with them to Madeira. ‘I saw the list and I wasn’t on it,’ he says. ‘I checked it four times and … nothing. I started crying and stormed into the training centre angrily demanding an explanation. It was tough but I learned a very important lesson.’

  The academy expects players to adhere to strict guidelines. Along with the team doctor, the directors take charge of each player’s physical development. In Cristiano’s case, they monitor his bone density to see what his maximum height will eventually be. It looks promising – all being well he should reach 1.85 metres. But at fifteen they discover a serious problem.

  ‘The club informed us that his resting heart rate was too high,’ his mother revealed in The Sun. ‘I had to fill in a mountain of paperwork so that they could admit him and do some tests. Eventually they decided to operate. They used a laser to repair the damaged area of his heart and after a few days’ recuperation he was discharged. Before I knew exactly what was going on I was really worried that he might have to give up football.’ He had a congenital defect which meant his pulse was higher than the normal rate, but hadn’t affected his career. ‘A few days after the procedure he was back training with his team-mates,’ said his mother. ‘He could even run faster than before.’

  He not only runs fast, he also moves up the ranks with incredible speed. At sixteen Ronaldo is undoubtedly the academy’s star player. He is the only player in the club’s long history to play for the Under 16s, Under 17s, Under 18s, second team and first team in a single season. In August 2001 he signs his first professional contract. Four years, 2,000 Euros a month and a 20-million-Euro buyout clause. He moves from living in the academy dorms to a hostel near the Marques de Pombal square, in the heart of Lisbon, just until he is able to find his own apartment where his family can come and visit him more often. The boy has grown up; he’s more independent and he decides to find a new manager. He leaves Luis Vega, the man who manages Figo, and places the future of his career in the hands of Jorge Mendes.

  In August 2001 the Sporting first team gains a new manager. László Bölöni is a Romanian originally from Hungary, a former star midfielder for Steaua Bucharest who won the Champions League with them in 1986. He has spent eight seasons in the dugout at French team AS Nancy, and after a brief stint as the Romanian national coach he has accepted the job at Sporting.

  In his first year he wins the league and the Portuguese cup, and he takes note of players like Cristiano, Ricardo Quaresma and Hugo Viana. He is keen to promote Cristiano to the first team as soon as possible. In fact, CR7 does get to train with the top players on occasion. The medics don’t advise him making the leap just yet, as he is still growing, but it’s clear that it won’t be long before the kid from Madeira makes his debut.

  Chapter 5

  Seventeen years, eight months, two days

  ‘They’ve yet to see the real Ronaldo. This is just the beginning.’

  A green and white bus is on its way to the Sporting academy in Alcochete. It’s 1 July 2002 and it’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s first day with the first team. Romanian coach László Bölöni has promoted him for the preseason alongside three other B team players: Custódio, Carlos Martins and Paíto.

  ‘I hope to play well and be able to stay with the first team. I want to do my best and try to live up to the coach’s expectations,’ declares a humble Ronaldo, adding: ‘Playing alongside João Pinto and Jardel is a dream come true. They are amazing role models for any footballer.’

  The first match is scheduled five days later against Samoquense, a first division team from the Setúbal district. They win it 9-0. The next is against Rio Maior: 5-0 in favour of the Sporting Lions. Ronaldo is on top form, and he scores a goal, but Bölöni decides to proceed with caution.

  The kid is used to playing up front, but the manager puts him on the left wing – he can make good use of his speed there, but it’s also better because he’s not physically up to taking on the opposition midfielders yet. He doesn’t disappoint. He is fast, he has good ball control and he creates trouble for his markers.

  The coach repeats his tactics on 14 July, at Sporting’s official 2002-03 season presentation match in front of all the fans and shareholders at the José Alvalade stadium. Their opponents are Olympique Lyonnais, current French champions. It ends in a one-all draw, but i
t gives the crowd a chance to watch the jewel in the youth academy’s crown.

  ‘This boy is one to watch,’ writes Record. ‘He knows how to lose his opponent, he can dribble, and he has a nose for goals.’ It’s true – Cristiano scores a goal on his first appearance at a ground where just a short while ago he was a mere ball boy. The referee wrongly disallows it.

  Less than a week later it’s time for a rendezvous with another French team, Paris Saint-Germain. It ends 2-2, and Cristiano Ronaldo has another surprise in store. After the game, when everyone is expecting him to be gracious and emotional and to say that it’s been the happiest night of his life, the Madeiran offers: ‘The shareholders have yet to see the real Ronaldo. This is just the beginning.’ He is cheeky, irreverent and very sure of himself. Nonetheless, he has played well on the left wing, he has taken three shots, and there is already talk of a new star Lion.

  The manager is quick to play down the impassioned outburst. ‘Ronaldo is a young man with excellent skills, but he is not yet a fully-fledged player.’ In any case, he is only prepared to bring him on in small stints of fifteen or twenty minutes at most, and at the moment it’s only in the summer friendlies, like in the Benfica derby on 27 July, or against Pontevedra on 1 August. But gradually the boy starts to become an integral part of the Lions’ game and the results are flowing thick and fast.

  On 3 August, Sporting face another green and white team, Seville’s Real Betis, who have come over to Maia. In the 77th minute László Bölöni makes four substitutions. Danny comes on for Barbosa, Luís Filipe for Quaresma, Diogo for Niculae and Rui Bento is replaced by number 28, ‘Ronaldo Cristiano’ as it says in the programme. Quaresma scores in the 27th minute, Alfonso equalises in the 30th, and Barbosa puts them in the lead in the 53rd – 2-1 to the Portuguese team.

  In the 84th minute Alfonso nets his second goal of the night, bringing the scores level once again. It feels like the point of no return and two minutes later Casas tries for the victory goal. Only a spectacular dive from César Prates keeps it out. The game goes into extra time and now it’s time to see what this seventeen-year-old kid can do.

  Defensive mistake from a confident Juanito. His team-mate takes a free kick and he takes it on the chest. But he doesn’t control it well enough, the ball bounces away from him and Cristiano is on it like a shot. He steals the ball with a backheel, then brings it back in front of him and heads for the left wing. He dribbles towards Betis goalie Toni Prats, and from an impossibly tight position on the far left corner of the area he spies the open goal and aims for the far corner, evading Rivas whose desperate leap to deflect it is in vain. It’s a phenomenal goal, demonstrating ability, technique, control, potential, and instinct in the box.

  Cristiano erupts into celebration mode, running round the pitch and blowing kisses into the stands. It’s his first goal in the Sporting strip and he deserves the 3-2 victory. The Portuguese press call it ‘a work of art’. The goal has cemented his self-confidence and any last trace of fear has vanished. He had previously been nervous when playing with the first team – he felt he didn’t quite match up, like he was just a boy among men. Everything has changed now – although people still don’t know who he is. The TV network credits the goal to Custódio, and the Spanish press can’t stop talking about the incredible goal by Custódio, his team-mate who had come onto the pitch just minutes before him.

  ‘I dedicate this goal to my family, especially my mother Dolores who is here with me in Lisbon,’ an ecstatic Cristiano Ronaldo tells Portugal’s morning tabloid, Correio da Manhã. He thanks his manager for being ‘a great coach who has taken big risks on the young players and helped me to integrate into the first team’. And not forgetting the fans: ‘I know they care about me and I am going to work hard to live up to their trust in me, to thank them for how they have welcomed me. I will do my best and hopefully I’ll succeed.’

  Eleven days later on 14 August, the gods are smiling on him once again. It is his debut in an official match, in the Champions League qualifiers at the Alvalade. The opponents are none other than Héctor Cúper’s Inter Milan. Ronaldo comes on for the Spaniard Toñito in the 58th minute. He immediately comes up against veterans Javier Zanetti and Marco Materazzi, who between them have more years of footballing experience than Ronaldo has been alive. They make Cristiano’s life extremely difficult, but by the end, despite the 0-0 scoreline, he has managed to pull off a stunning performance. His flashes of brilliance, albeit isolated, have the stands buzzing with anticipation. Not bad for a debut.

  The criticism from the Portuguese press concerns excessive dodging and feinting and individual one-on-ones on the parts of Ronaldo and Kutuzov, the other junior member of the Lions’ attack. In other words, they don’t know when to give up the ball. It’s a youthful vice which can only be corrected through years of training.

  He is certainly capable of entertaining the crowds, and he proves it on his second outing, on 7 October 2002 in the Portuguese SuperLiga. The current title holders are at home to Moreirense FC, who have been promoted from the second division. As matches go it’s not particularly special. But Cristiano is in the starting line-up for the first time, and at seventeen years, eight months and two days old he makes history as Sporting’s youngest ever goal-scorer. He scores ‘a monumental, majestic, unbelievable goal … there are not sufficient adjectives to describe this young Sporting prodigy’s achievement’, scream the SportTV commentators.

  It’s the 34th minute: Ronaldo gets a backheel from Toñito just over the halfway line, he dodges past two defenders, slaloming back and forth for some 60 metres; he follows it up with a bicycle kick on the edge of the area to wrong-foot another opponent and slides it smoothly past Moreirense goalkeeper João Ricardo, who makes a desperate dash out into the box.

  Cristiano tears off his shirt, hugs his team-mates and runs towards the stands. Bölöni celebrates with his colleagues in the dugout. He is the one who took the risk and changed Ronaldo’s position. It’s a risk which has paid off in spades.

  Back to the match: number 28’s performance is not over yet. Despite the presence of Brazilian striker ‘Super Mário’ Jardel – last year’s Golden Boot, back on the Sporting team sheet after four months of injury – Cristiano is the playmaker, scoring the winner and taking it to 3-0 with a spectacular header. The only thing that mars the occasion is when Cristiano’s mother Dolores feels faint in the stands. Perhaps it’s the excitement of her son’s performance, but in the end it’s just a scare.

  The following day Ronaldo dominates Portugal’s front pages with his ‘monumental goal’. The journalists milk the opportunity to tell his story, from his first street games in the ‘slums’ of Madalena in Santo António. They interview his childhood coaches. They try to get hold of his father. The poor man has only seen the highlights – he followed the match on the radio because Andorinha were playing at the same time. He says that everyone on the island has mentioned his son’s success and they joke that he should see if Sporting will loan him to Andorinha so that they can win something for a change.

  José Dinis maintains that his son is a force of nature who has played ball day and night since he was a little kid. He hopes he will have a great future and will keep maturing as a person as much as a player. He has no desire to be famous simply because he is the number 28’s father, but he definitely won’t be missing his son’s next match. He’s already bought a plane ticket to see him at Belenenses – his first trip to Lisbon in six years.

  It’s not just the Portuguese press that are interested in the newcomer’s profile. Ronaldo is also making waves across Europe, thanks to his goals and his name – let’s not forget that the original Ronaldo (Ronaldo Nazário de Lima) is enjoying his umpteenth comeback and has just helped Brazil win the Korea/Japan World Cup on 30 June 2002. He is the tournament top scorer with eight goals. Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport is already talking about the ‘new Ronaldo’ on its front page.

  What does the kid from Madeira think about such a comparison? ‘
I would never dare to think about it. Real Madrid’s Ronaldo is a superstar, he’s the best player in the world. He’s my favourite player.’

  Cristiano’s performance in the first team has been outstanding. He has become the fans’ golden boy. László Bölöni has the utmost faith in him, but competition is fierce, with Jardel, Quaresma, João Pinto, Toñito and Niculae already on the strikers’ roster. At the end of the season, Ronaldo has played in 25 games and only started in eleven of them. He has scored three goals in the league and two in the cup.

  It hasn’t been a great run for Sporting. They are out of the race for the Champions League, having been beaten 2-0 by Inter in the return leg at the San Siro. They are also out of the UEFA Cup, losing 1-3 to Serbia’s FK Partizan in Portugal and drawing 3-3 in the second leg. On 1 May they are knocked out of the Copa de Portugal by Naval in the quarter finals. And they fail to hold onto their league title. They finish third, 27 points behind José Mourinho’s Porto and sixteen behind Benfica.

  Bölöni bows out of the dugout – a moment of great sadness for his number 28. ‘I really enjoyed working with him. He was the one who moved me up into the first team,’ says Cristiano. ‘Without him, I would probably still be in the B team.’

  The new manager is Fernando Santos. Cristiano doesn’t know him but he has heard that he is good natured, he favours a high level of discipline and he is a god in the footballing world. With his arrival, the rumour mill is rife with speculation about the possible departure of the academy’s star player from the first team. Santos is forced to make a statement, declaring: ‘Ronaldo is a key player as far as Sporting is concerned.’

  Cristiano can only hope that this is the case, and explains that he wants to stay at Sporting. ‘I want to channel all my energy into helping the club win the titles that evaded them this year. I have played with Sporting since I was twelve years old and I want to win championships with this team. If I go without winning anything it would leave a bitter taste in my mouth. But that’s life. Let’s see what the future holds …’