Ronaldo （Luca Caioli）

From the author of the bestselling Torres and Messi, a revealing new biography of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo. 
 
When a young Portuguese player with sublime abilities arrived at Manchester United in 2003, Alex Ferguson put the no. 7 shirt — once worn by Best, Cantona and Beckham — on his back without hesitation. The expectation was clear, and Cristiano Ronaldo didn't disappoint. Ronaldo won the FIFA World Footballer of the Year in 2008, the first Premier League player ever to do so. Since his record-breaking £80m move to Real Madrid, his goal-scoring flair has continued and made his on-going rivalry with Barcelona's Lionel Messi even more intense. 
 
But did you know that he underwent laser heart surgery aged just fifteen to enable him to continue playing the game he loved? Or that Nacional, his first professional club, donated twenty balls and two sets of kits to his youth team in order to sign him? Or how he came to be known as abelhinha -'little bee'- a name he would later pass on to his Yorkshire Terrier?
 
Luca Caioli tells the inside story of this global superstar both on and off the pitch, unveiling the life of one of modern football's great players as never before.