Cristiano Ronaldo picture special: How he turned from the skinny kid at Sporting Lisbon to Portugal’s powerhouse and football’s all-time leading scorer
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What does it take to succeed at the the highest level? Natural talent, yes, but also the desire and determination to improve every day.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the epitome of that and continues to reap the rewards of his hard endeavour. None more so than on Sunday night when he wrote his name into the record books to become the all-time leading goalscorer in footballing history.
His strike for Juventus against Napoli in the Italian Super Cup final moved him on to 760 career goals and counting, while also ensuring yet more silverware was added to his vast collection.
The record-breaking goal has moved him above Josef Bican – with the Austrian-Czech striker scoring 759 goals between 1931 and 1955.
Despite being 35 – he turns 36 on February 5 – Ronaldo has shown little sign of slowing down, instead refining his game from a dynamic all-round superstar into the ultimate goal machine.
In 2018 he insisted that he actually has a ‘biological age’ of 23, and claimed ‘I can keep playing until I’m 41’.
He may not be as fast as he once was – halting the inevitable passage of time remains beyond his powers, but he has taken steps to make sure he is always extracting as much as he can out of himself.
And as we pay homage to record-breaking Ronaldo, Sportsmail has gone through the archives to see how he transformed his body into the Portuguese powerhouse that we are now accustomed to.
Ronaldo was just a boy when he broke through the ranks at Sporting Lisbon – making his first-team debut aged just 17 in 2002
The 2002-03 term ended on a high for Ronaldo as he won the prestigious Toulon tournament with Portugal Under 20s
His talents at Sporting caught the eye of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson who signed the skinny teen in 2003
The Portuguese’s slender frame wasn’t helped by the baggy kit he wore for the Red Devils in his debut 2003-04 campaign
Ronaldo shows off his muscular physique while riding a bicycle during some downtime in between Euro 2004 on home soil
By 2005, his body was beginning to fill out as he started hitting the gym more vigorously – as shown here on New Year’s Eve
Ronaldo cools off after a hard training session with Portugal ahead of the 2006 World Cup – where they finished fourth
The 2007-08 season saw Ronaldo truly hit his strides as he led United to Premier League and Champions League glory
In 2009, he swapped Manchester (left) for Real Madrid in a world-record £80m transfer (at the time) that summer
The 2011-12 term remains Ronaldo’s most prolific as he scored a stunning 69 goals for club and country in all competitions
In 2014, Ronaldo won his second Champions League as Real Madrid beat local rivals in extra-time to claim La Decima
Two years later Ronaldo was decisive once more vs Atletico as Real beat them in the Champions League final on penalties
In 2018, the shirtless celebration of Ronaldo was in full flow again as Real beat Juve in the Champions League quarter-finals
His Superman silhouette is down to the work on his latissimus dorsi, the large muscles that spread across the back and side
Ronaldo’s phenomenally muscular legs are sculpted in the gym, which he visits daily as part of a gruelling regime
In 2019 the Portuguese superstar worked on his sprinting with 100m Olympic silver medallist Francis Obikwelu
Ronaldo’s dedication to goalscoring has seen him adopt a painstaking fitness plan – but it has proved dividends in his career
With a swipe of his left foot in the Italian Super Cup final against Napoli, Ronaldo became the highest scoring player in football history with 760 goals to his name
The Portugese legend peeled away safe in the knowledge he is now in a league of his own when it comes to career goals
