Cristiano Ronaldo represents Portugal in international football.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro , ( [ kɾiʃ ` tjɐnu ʁuˈnaɫdu ] , born 5 February 1985 ) is a Portuguese professional footballer for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Portugal national team . He primarily plays as a forward , but has also been deployed as a winger and serves as captain for Portugal . Ronaldo made his international debut for Portugal in August 2003 , at the age of 18 . He took over full captaincy in July 2008 , and he led Portugal to the semi-finals at Euro 2012 , finishing the competition as joint-top scorer .