The Popularity of Cristiano Ronaldo is well known to everyone. Considered one the best Real Madrid player of all time followed by Ferenc Puskas. Ronaldo equaled Puskas's record of 242 goals in fewer matches.
Here are some unknown facts about the legend that will make you wonder about the kind of personality, Ronaldo poses:
1) Ronaldo was nicknamed “cry-baby” as a child. His mother Dolores Aveiro said: “When he got home from school I’d tell him to do homework but he'd say he didn’t have any. I'd be making dinner and he would jump out of the window and run off until late. He used to cry when he passed and his friends didn't score. People called him 'cry-baby' and 'Little Bee' because of nobody could catch him."
2) Ronaldo was popular with other students at the school, but he was expelled at the age of 14 after he threw a chair at his teacher. Ronaldo said the reason he did it was that the teacher disrespected him. Despite it being a negative thing, it turned into a great turning point in his life. His mother then encouraged him to focus all his attention on soccer which he did and turned him into an international sensation.
3) At the age of 15, Ronaldo was diagnosed with a racing heart, a condition that might have forced him to give up playing football. He had an operation in which a laser was used to cauterize the area of his heart that was causing the problem. The surgery took place in the morning and Ronaldo was discharged from hospital by the end of the afternoon; he resumed training only a few days later.
4) His first professional game for Sporting Lisbon came when he plays in the "Portuguese Super League" match at the age of 17 and that was the start of a journey which will make him one of the greatest players ever.
5) Manchester United paid £12 million to sign him in 2003-a a record fee for a player of his age.
6) In 2008, a year after signing a five-year, £31 million contract, Ronaldo set a franchise record for goals scored (42) and earned himself the FIFA World of the Year honor.
7) In June 2010, during the build-up to the World Cup, Ronaldo became the fourth footballer - after Steven Gerrard, Pelé, and David Beckham - to be represented as a waxwork at Madame Tussauds London.
8) He is also philanthropic at heart. In November 2012, Ronaldo sold the golden boot he had won in 2011 for €1.5 million and gave the money to fund schools for children in Gaza. In December 2012, Ronaldo joined FIFA's '11 for Health' program to raise awareness amongst kids of how to steer clear of conditions including drug addiction, HIV, malaria, and obesity.
9) Cristiano Ronaldo is fast, really fast. He recently defeated a Spanish sprinter Angel David Rodriguez in the zigzag spring challenge by half a minute while he narrowly lost against a professional sprinter in the straight line.
10) When Ronaldo jumps, he generates 5G of G-force on take-off - this is five times the power of a cheetah in full flight. This enables him to reach heights of 44cm in the air from a standing start and 78cm with a run-up - 7cm more than the average NBA player.
11) Ronaldo will sprint 900 times more in a season than an Olympic sprinter.
12) Cristiano Ronaldo's body fat is about 10 percent which makes him the perfect machine for fast sprinting and athletic courses.
13) His free-kick speed is about 13.1 Kmph, which is compared roughly with the speed of a space shuttle while launching.
14) Ronaldo lifts around 23,055 kg of weight during a training session, which is a total of 16 Toyota Prius cars. The guy just continues to amaze us.
15) In May 2014, Forbes ranked Ronaldo first in their list of the world's highest-paid players, with earnings of $73 million in combined income from salaries, bonuses and off-field earnings for the previous 12 months.
16) Cristiano Ronaldo's net worth is $250 million.
17) If any club wants Cristiano Ronaldo to play for them, they would have to pay $1 billion.
