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[[CR] Niki]

The latest off the Sporting Lisbon production line, following the likes of Luis Figo and Joao Pinto into a big European move, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is regarded as one of the brightest talents in European football. In recent years the Sporting production has churned them out even more rapidly and Ronaldo follows former team-mates Hugo Viana and Ricardo Quaresma in moving to a big move away from Portugal. Indeed both were contemporaries of his in Lisbon - he and Viana both made their debuts in the same game for their former club. Ronaldo s talents have been hailed in his homeland for over a decade - he was the subject of a transfer at the age at eight in his native island of Madeira. Ronaldo s first big move came at the age of 11 when club Nacional ran into trouble when paying Sporting Lisbon a £25,000 fee for defender Franco. On August 15, 2001 he was handed his Sporting debut as a 16-year-old by then coach Laszlo Boloni against Second Division B side Atletico. His league debut saw him score twice in a 3-0 victory over Moreirense and then hit a late winner in a 2-1 defeat of Boavista. He was soon to play a starring role for the Portuguese Under-17 side at the European Championships. The 2002-3 season was his first full run in the side and his strength, skill and pace led to him becoming one of Europe s most coveted talents. His two-footedness and ability to play on either wing or as a support striker made him the ideal candidate for Sir Alex Ferguson in his search for support for Ruud Van Nistelrooy s goalscoring exploits. Ferguson had been eyeing the player for a year when his hand was forced by interest from other leading European clubs in Real Madrid and Juventus into invoking United s close relationship with Sporting and splashed out £12.24m for the teenager, beating the British record set by Viana the year before. Sporting were prepared to sell the player for such a price but they had wanted to keep him and had even cashed in Quaresma to Barcelona to retain Ronaldo s services. But the lure of Old Trafford was strong. A wizardly showing in a pre-season game against United had his future team-mates drooling and within a week he was one of them, becoming United s first-ever Portugese player. A young man named after an American president, he will hope to become one of United and Europe s precedent players.

(taken from www.cristiano-ronaldo.org)