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Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo in his Portuguese international stripCristiano Ronaldo (full name Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro; born February 5, 1985, Madeira, Portugal) was signed by Manchester United in 2003 for £12.24m. Widely regarded as one of the premier talents in European football, Ronaldo originally played for Portuguese team Sporting Lisbon, a team famous for producing Real Madrid star Luis Figo. Able to use either foot and play on both sides of the pitch, he attracted the attentions of Alex Ferguson in the summer of 2003, when Sporting Lisbon beat Manchester United 3-1 in the inauguration of the Alvalade XXI stadium. Now plying his trade for the English giants, Ronaldo has earned a equal amounts of praise and criticism for his flashy style of play and dribbling tricks. He demonstrated these at the 2004 FA Cup final in Cardiff's Millennium Stadium, in which he starred, scoring the first goal in United's 3-0 win over Millwall. In his second season at United, Ronaldo has grown as a player, notably starring in the memorable 4-2 demolition of champions Arsenal at their Highbury stadium. The doubts over his 'flashy' style and perceived inability to produce an 'end product', the final killer cross or pass to set-up a goal, must surely now have been allayed, as Ronaldo has consistently been one of United's most dedicated and effective players in a season of highs and lows. United reached the FA Cup final, but had disappointing campaigns in the Premier League and Champions League. Is currently dating Australian brunette Kylie Richardson who plans to move to Manchester later in the year to support Cristiano and be closer to him. Ronaldo made his international debut in August 2003, against Kazakhstan. He scored Portugal's only goal in their 2-1 loss to Greece in the opening match of Euro 2004, and the first goal of the semi final against the Netherlands which Portugal won 2-1. The final saw a rematch of the opening game of the tournament and again, Greece emerged victorious. Though the tournament ended in disappointment for Ronaldo, he had truly come of age as a player. He also represented Portugal at the 2004 Olympic Games. As of 11 June 2005 he has scored 10 goals in 24 appearances for his country. External links