Ronaldo: Second Edition (World Soccer Legends) - Hardcover

Illugi Jökulsson is a journalist, editor, and author based in Iceland.

WHERE DOES HE COME FROM?

Cristiano Ronaldo comes from Funchal, the largest town on the island of Madeira, which belongs to Portugal.

Portugal
The country covers an area of 35,500 square miles in total and has a population of 10.5 million. The capital is called Lisbon and has 550,000 inhabitants.

The Madeiras
The largest island, Madeira, is 286 square miles and has a population of 260,000 of which 111,000 live in the capital, Funchal. Twenty-seven miles away is another island, Porto Santo, which is 16 square miles in size and has a population of 4,300. There are several smaller, uninhabited islands in the archipelago. The islands are roughly 300 miles off the coast of Africa, and more than 620 miles from the mainland of Portugal. The flight between Madeira and Lisbon takes approximately one-and-a-half hours. The Madeiras are 250 miles north of the Canary Islands, which belong to Spain.

History
European ships sailing along the African coast probably found the Madeiras a long time ago, and around AD 1420 sailors and merchants from Portugal started to settle on them. The Portuguese cleared the forests that covered the islands in order to plant sugarcane. The sugar plantations were later moved to Brazil and replaced with vineyards. There is a variety of wine produced in the archipelago called Madeira wine. In addition to agriculture, the islanders make their living from fishing, tourism, and financial services.

In 1976, the Madeiras were granted political autonomy.

Soccer
Soccer is the most popular sport in Portugal. The three strongest clubs by far are Benfica and Sporting from Lisbon, and Porto from the city of Oporto. Porto has dominated the Portuguese League since the beginning of the 21st century. In recent years, the club Braga has been growing in strength. There are several soccer clubs in Madeira, and two of them, Maritimo and Nacional, play in the Portuguese top division. They are among the strongest clubs in the league and have competed in the European tournament, but haven’t won any trophies or titles. Matches between these two teams are heated affairs.

Who is he?
Cristiano Ronaldo is the youngest of four siblings. He has one older brother, Huge, and two older sisters called Elma and Liliana Catia. They are considerably older than him, as they were born between 1974 and 1976.

Ronaldo’s parents were called Jose Dinis Aveiro and Maria Dolores dos Santos, and were regular working-class people. Jose was a gardener and Dolores a cook. The family had very little money to spare.

What is his name?
One of his sisters got to choose his first name, but his middle name was inspired by Ronald Reagan, who was president of the United States when Ronaldo was born. Reagan used to be a modestly successful film star and was a favorite of Ronaldo’s father.

According to Portuguese naming traditions, people usually use the surnames of both mother and father, so the boy’s full name is

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro.