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The Ultimate Match - Crowe
V.S. Messi.
: Goats
The Ultimate Match - Crowe
V.S. Messi.
: Clubs
The Ultimate Showdown - Crowe
VS. Messi
In 1996, Portuguese soccer powerhouse Sporting Lisbon (but I prefer the Hong Kong translation of Sporting) signed a young player named Cristiano Ronaldo, not from the island of Portugal, nor from a former African colony, but from Madeira, a small island about an hour's flight from Lisbon. Fernando Sousa, the boy's godfather, was the one who introduced him to the island's Nacional Academy, a soccer club, and because of Cristiano Ronaldo's potential, Ronaldo's mother, Dolores, decided to let her son play professionally, but opportunities are limited on a small island, so Sousa decided to let her son play professionally. With limited opportunities on the island, Sousa approached an old acquaintance, João Marque de Freitas, who is not only a successful lawyer but also an avid supporter of sport in Lisbon, and asked De Freitas to take a look at Ronaldo in the hope that he might be given the chance to play on the island of Portugal.
I was sitting in my office one morning, DeFreitas recalls, when the guard on duty came in and told me that there was a man with a little boy and that they wanted to see me. The man was my friend Fernando Sousa, whom I had known since he played for Nacional, and the little boy, whom I had never seen before, appeared to be from a poor family, not particularly tall, but very thin, and was said to be a member of Nacional's youth team, and a key player in the team's championships, with a great deal of talent and determination. Freitas trusted his old friend's judgment and agreed to contact Aurelio Pereira, one of the biggest names in Portuguese soccer and head of Sporting Lisbon's youth system, a quiet and quiet man destined to go down in the history of Portuguese soccer for his leadership of a system that has contributed to the success of Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, and others. Pereira, a quiet and unassuming man, is destined to go down in the history of Portuguese football, as he led a youth system that contributed to the creation of some of the biggest stars in the game, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Simao Sabrosa, Ricardo Quaresma and Nani!
But when he first met Ronaldo, he was still skeptical because it was a big risk for the club, after all, the 12 year old had not yet appeared on the radar of scouts all over the country, and since De Freitas knew from his own mouth that Ronaldo's father had a serious problem with alcohol and that the family's finances were quite precarious, he did not want to create another problem for the club! He did not want to create another problem for the club, but out of long-standing friendship and respect for De Freitas' professional judgment, he was willing to allow Ronaldo to take the test at Sporting Lisbon. This means that a 12 year old boy, who has never left his home, will embark on a journey to the capital city, where he will play alongside young players of his generation, to see if he has what it takes!
Osvaldo Silva, the coach in charge of the testing program at the time, recalled that the little boy (Ronaldo) was exceptional, he was like a rough diamond, all he needed was polishing and forging and I was sure that we would be able to make a good footballer. So two days later, De Freitas got a call from Pereira telling him that Ronaldo was so good, in fact, even the first team players came to watch him play when he was in training camp! Apparently Sporting Lisbon were ready to sign Ronaldo, as Nacional had previously signed a player who had played for Sporting Lisbon's youth team, transferring
The fee was around 25,000 euros, so they agreed to let Ronaldo move for the same amount.
(Pereira promised Dolores that he would take good care of his son, because later on Ronaldo suffered from intense homesickness, he had no friends in Lisbon and was often lonely. He was often lonely, his teammates would make fun of his distinctive island accent and he would get angry and clash, but on the other hand, on the pitch he was a beast, and his teammates at the time said that Ronaldo was like an alien who came to earth in a flying saucer, not only because he played better than everyone else, but also because he played in a way that had never been seen before! His passion for the game was unparalleled, and his desire for perfection in every aspect of practice was so intense that he was so eager to get on the field that he would sneak out over the wall after bedtime to do weights until the team couldn't take it anymore and changed the locks on the weight room.
The coaches at Sporting Lisbon, who honed in on taking care of Cristiano Ronaldo both mentally and physically, knew that making mistakes was a pretty important part of the whole learning process, and that in the beginning the team had to sprinkle the seed, take care of it and have the patience to let the fruits grow, and that's the kind of soccer education that Cristiano Ronaldo received. And at the age of 14, he was already competing with players a year older in the youth team; he wanted to handle free kicks, he wanted to kick kick kicks, he wanted to take 12-yard penalties ...... What the hell do you guys want? At first the older players were baffled and even a little angry, but in the end they gave in because they all knew that if you want to win, you have to give the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo!
