Five Ballons d’Or, five Champions League titles, countless titles and records… At the age of 38, after a career that was almost out of reach, cristiano ronaldo He is living a “golden retirement life” in Saudi Arabia.
The Portuguese is the top scorer so far this year and retirement does not appear to be an option as he ‘dreams’ of making it to the Premier League 2026 world cup.
For many years he had lived in luxury, but that was not all that was to begin with. Fabio PaimRonaldo’s team-mates at Sporting CP have told The Sun some anecdotes about their experiences with Ronaldo.
Most notable was the precarious situation they found themselves in: “When we played for Sporting CP and lived in the academy, we lived in the stadium. At night we would go to McDonald’s and get burgers that no one wanted. And they’re not easy to sell.
“We went there every night to get burgers, We ate leftovers that were meant to be thrown away. Sports know this,” he added.
Of course, Fabio Paim remembers the attitude that propelled him to the pinnacle of football history in Sporting Lisbon’s youth teams.
“I always remember Ronaldo as a great worker, very loyal and wanting to be the best. He was always like that, angry when he lost. It’s this hard work that got him to where he is now.”, he pointed out.
In 2003, in a preseason game against Manchester UnitedSir Alex Ferguson fell in love with Cristiano and brought him to the Premier League…making history.
In Paim’s case, he was loaned out to Chelsea, where he began a globe-trotting career that eventually ended in Polish football and in prison.