Issue No. 51 June 2014

CAIRO WEST MAGAZINE
FEATURE
spot as French national icon of his era.
He regularly topped the newspaper
Journal du Dimanche’s periodic vote
for most popular Frenchman.
Zidane almost inspired a flawed
French team to a second World Cup,
but late in the final, after Marco
Materazzi allegedly questioned the
virtue of his female relatives, Zidane
headbutted the Italian and was sent
off.
Cristiano Ronaldo ( 2002 - )
Born Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos
Aveiro on February 5, 1985, in
Funchal, Madeira, Portugal, a small
island off the western coast of the
country, Ronaldo is the youngest of
four children born to Maria Dolores
dos Santos and Jose Dinis Aveiro. He
was named after Ronald Reagan, a
favourite actor of his father’s.
Ronaldo grew up in a largely working
class neighbourhood, his home a
small tin roofed shack that overlooked
the ocean. His early life was shaped
by hardship; his father, a gardener,
often drank too much, and eventually
died from kidney problems in 2005.
Ronaldo’s mother worked as a cook
and cleaner.
By his early teens, Ronaldo’s talent
and legend had grown considerably.
After a stint with Nacional da liha da
Madeira, he signed with Sporting
Portugal in 2001. That same year,
at the tender age of 16, Ronaldo
turned heads with a mesmerizing
performance against Manchester
United, wowing even his opponents
with his footwork and deft skill. He
made such an impression that a
number of United players asked their
manager to try and sign the young
player. It wasn’t long before the club
44 43
paid Ronaldo’s team more than £12
million for his services - a record fee
for a player of his age.
In Manchester, first as a winger and
later as a striker, he racked up the
prizes: three straight league titles
from 2007 through 2009, and the
Champions League in 2008. That
night in Moscow he scored United’s
only goal with a header, but missed
his penalty in the shootout. He won
the 2008 Ballon d’Or for European
Footballer of the year.
In 2009 Real Madrid bought him for
a world record transfer fee of $132
million. In hindsight, Ronaldo might
have done better to stay at United.
The team he joined was a disjointed
outfit with too many stars. Even after
Jose Mourinho became manager,
Madrid could rarely match Barcelona.
Since moving to Spain, Ronaldo has
won just one Spanish Cup. Meanwhile
Portugal has gone into decline.
Often apparently despairing of his
teammates (as his perma-frown
makes all too clear), he has become
more of an individualist, shooting
from all angles, but with brilliant
results: it took him just over two
years to notch 100 goals for Madrid.
A ballet dancer built like a truck, he is
the ultimate mix of power, grace and
style. To move up the rankings, he
needs just a couple more big trophies.
Leonil Messi ( 2003 - )
Lionel Messi was born Luis Lionel
Andres Messi on June 24, 1987,
in Rosario, Argentina. As a young
boy, he tagged along when his two
older brothers played soccer with
their friends. At the age of 8, he was
recruited to join the youth system of
Newell’s Old Boys, a Rosario-based
club. Recognizably smaller than most
of the kids in his age group, Messi was
eventually diagnosed by doctors as
suffering from a hormone deficiency
that restricted his growth.
Messi’s parents, Jorge and Ceclia,
decided on a regimen of nightly
growth-hormone injections for
their son, though it soon proved
impossible to pay several hundred
dollars per month for the medication.
So, at the age of 13, when Messi was
offered the chance to train at soccer
powerhouse FC Barcelona’s youth
academy, La Masia, and have his
medical bills covered by the team,
Messi’s family picked up and moved
across the Atlantic to make a new
home in Spain.
Although he was often homesick in
his new country, Messi moved quickly
through the junior system ranks, and
by the age of 16, he had made his
first appearance for Barcelona. Messi
put himself in the record books on
May 1, 2005, as the youngest player
to ever score a goal for the franchise.
That same year, he led Argentina to
the title in the under-20 World Cup,
scoring on a pair of penalty kicks to
propel the team over Nigeria.
Messi eventually grew to 5 feet and
7 inches, and with his short stature,
speed and relentless attacking style,
he drew comparisons to another
famous Argentinean footballer: Diego
Maradona. Messi steered Barcelona
to a wealth of success, most notably
in 2009, when the left-footer’s team
captured the Champions League, La
Liga, and Spanish Super Cup titles.
That same year, after two consecutive
runner-up finishes, he took home his
first FIFA “World Player of the Year”
honor/Ballon d’Or award.
Even the great Maradona gushed
about his fellow countryman. “I see
him as very similar to me,” the retired
player told the BBC. “He’s a leader
and is offering lessons in beautiful
football. He has something different
to any other player in the world.”
All information is sourced from:
biography.com