Cristiano Ronaldo was a portuguese soccer player.
Association football , more commonly known as football or soccer , is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball . 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 . Often ranked the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time , Ronaldo was named the best Portuguese player of all time by the Portuguese Football Federation , during its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2015 .