CELEBRITY
Factbox: -Soccer-Ronaldo joins Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr
Factbox on Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr on a 2-1/2 year deal on Friday.
EARLY DAYS
* Born Feb. 5, 1985 in Funchal, Madeira.
* Plays youth team football at Nacional before joining Sporting in 2002.
MANCHESTER UNITED (2003-09)
* United manager Alex Ferguson signs the 18-year-old for 12.24 million pounds ($14.80 million) in August 2003.
* In 2006-07, United win the title and Ronaldo is named England’s Footballer of the Year.
* Celebrates League and Champions League double in the 2007-08 season, finishing as Europe’s top scorer with 42 goals.
* Caps 2008 season by winning the Ballon d’Or.
* In 2008-09, helps United to the Premier League title and League Cup.
* Scores 118 goals in 291 appearances for United.
REAL MADRID (2009-18)
* Signs for 80 million pounds from United in 2009, a world record fee at the time.
* Scores 46 goals in the 2011-12 LaLiga season as Real win the title.
* Scores a record 17 goals in the Champions League in 2013-14 as Real secure a 10th European title.
* Scores the decisive spot kick in penalty shootout against Atletico to give Real their 11th Champions League title in 2016.
* Wins the Ballon d’Or in 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017.
* Finishes as Real Madrid’s all-time top scorer with 451 goals.
JUVENTUS (2018-21)
* Signs for the Turin club in July 2018 for a reported fee of 100 million euros, the highest ever for a player over 30.
* Scores 21 goals as Juve win their eighth consecutive Scudetto, thereby becoming the first player to win league titles in England, Spain and Italy.
* Comes in third place for the 2019 Best FIFA Men’s Player Award, behind Lionel Messi and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.
* Nets 31 times to finish as the second-highest goalscorer in the 2019-20 Serie A season as Juventus again win the title.
* Juve, however, get knocked out by Olympique Lyonnais in the round of 16 in the Champions League.
* Wins the Serie A golden boot for 2020-21 with 29 goals but the Italian giants fail to win the league, finishing fourth.
* Finishes with 101 goals in 134 games across all competitions.
MANCHESTER UNITED (2021-22)
* Re-signs for the Premier League club in August 2021 for a fee of 15 million euros plus eight million euros in performance-related add-ons.
* Becomes the first player to score in five consecutive Champions League matches in a single season for an English club.
* Reaches 807 goals to become top scorer in professional football history
* Manchester United get knocked out by Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 in the Champions League and finish sixth in Premier League.
* Nets 18 times to become the third-highest Premier League goalscorer.
* Scores 24 goals across all competitions to become the team’s top scorer for the season.
* Wins the Manchester United Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award.
* Ends the season trophyless for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.
PORTUGAL (2003-)
* Makes Portugal debut in August 2003.
* Helps side to runners-up spot at Euro 2004.
* Portugal are eliminated from the 2010 World Cup by Spain in the last 16.
* Portugal go out in the group stage at the 2014 World Cup with Ronaldo clearly struggling with injury.
* In 2016, helps Portugal win their first European title as they beat France 1-0 in the final.
* Captains Portugal to victory over the Netherlands in the 2018-19 Nations League final.
* Scores against France at Euro 2020, equalling former Iran captain Ali Daei’s international record of 109 goals.
* Wins the Euro 2020 Golden Boot with five goals and one assist.
* In September 2021 surpasses Daei’s record after scoring twice against Ireland in the World Cup qualifiers.
* Plays his fifth World Cup with Portugal at Qatar 2022
* Becomes the first player to score in five World Cups after netting a penalty against Ghana in a Group H match.
* Portugal get knocked out of the World Cup in the quarter-finals by Morocco.
Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first footballer to reach billionaire status, according to the latest Bloomberg Billionaires Index, which has valued the Portugal great’s net worth at an estimated $1.4 billion.
The 40-year-old striker’s financial ascent comes after he signed a new contract with Saudi side Al-Nassr in June reportedly worth more than $400 million.
Bloomberg said that Ronaldo earned more than $550 million in salary between 2002 and 2023, supplemented by a decade-long Nike deal worth nearly $18 million annually, and lucrative endorsements with Armani, Castrol and others that added more than $175 million to his fortune.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2023 had already made him the highest-paid player in football history, with an annual salary of 177 million pounds ($237.52 million), plus bonuses and a reported 15% share in his Saudi Arabia club.
Argentina and Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi has earned more than $600 million in pre-tax salary during his career.
Ronaldo’s billionaire status places him among a rare group of athletes that includes basketball greats Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, golfer Tiger Woods and tennis player Roger Federer.
Ronaldo suggested he is not considering retirement any time soon.
“I still have a passion for this,” he said at the Portugal Football Globes gala on Tuesday. “My family says it’s time to quit and they ask me why I want to score 1000 goals if I’ve already scored 900-something. But I don’t think that way inside.
“I’m still producing good things, I’m helping my club and the national team. Why not continue? I am sure that when I finish I will leave full because I gave everything of myself. I know I don’t have many years left to play, but the few I have left, I have to enjoy them to the fullest.”
-Reuters
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Former England soccer captain David Beckham and actor Gary Oldman were knighted in King Charles’ annual birthday honours list on Saturday, while sculptor Antony Gormley was made a Companion of Honour.
Beckham, 50, joined Manchester United as a trainee in 1993, going on to make almost 400 appearances for the club where he won a string of titles and cups.
He subsequently played for Real Madrid, LA Galaxy, and Inter Milan, as well as captaining his country 58 times and making 115 appearances.
His marriage to fashion designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham in 1999 cemented a celebrity status which went far beyond his sporting exploits.
Oldman, 67, started his career on the stage, where he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, before rising to prominence in film. He won the best actor Oscar for playing Winston Churchill in the 2017 drama “Darkest Hour”.
He also had roles in the “Dark Knight Trilogy” and the “Harry Potter” movie series and more recently starred in the TV spy drama “Slow Horses”.
Other famous names receiving honours included damehoods for musical theatre star Elaine Paige, novelist Pat Barker and ceramics maker Emma Bridgewater.
Roger Daltrey, lead singer of rock band the Who and a patron of the Teenage Cancer Trust, received a knighthood for services to charity.
More than 1,200 people received honours for their achievements, with a particular focus on those who had given their time to public service, the government said.
King Charles’ official birthday will be celebrated with the annual “Trooping the Colour” military parade in London on Saturday. His actual birthday is on November 14
-Reuters
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One of three judges in Diego Maradona’s closely scrutinized homicide trial in Argentina resigned on Tuesday amid a scandal triggered by the alleged filming of an unauthorised documentary, bringing uncertainty to the future of legal proceedings.
The high-profile trial over the death of soccer star Maradona began on March 11 in the South American country where the World Cup winner is still revered.
-Reuters
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