I’m part of football’s history – Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo believes his bulging trophy haul is proof that he is one of the greatest footballers of all time, Goal reports.
On Monday, the Real Madrid and Portugal star added The Best FIFA Men’s Player award for 2016 to the Ballon d’Or that he won last month, capping a stellar 12 months with club and country.
Ronaldo ended the year with Champions League and Euro 2016 winner’s medals, as well as one for the Club World Cup, prompting a string of year-end accolades.
Despite an era-defining row over his or Lionel Messi’s dominance of the period that they have shared, Ronaldo’s legacy as one of the game’s greats has long been secured, a fact not lost on him.
“I have no doubt that I am already a part of football’s history,” he told FIFA’s official website.
“This has always been my major goal, since I started playing: not only to become a player, but to be a star and to constantly strive to be the best.
“And I did it: the trophies speak for themselves – both the titles, the individual awards, and the records.
“It is a source of great pride and it motivates me to keep on working the same way I have been doing so far.”
Reflecting on a glittering year with club and country, Ronaldo said: “I have said it a few times: this has probably been the best year of my career.
“Having won the trophy with the national team obviously plays a big part in it as it was a first for Portugal and this makes 2016 a very special year.
“But there is also Real Madrid winning the Champions League and then the Club World Cup to finish the year in the best possible manner.”

Cristiano Ronaldo: I'd win more awards if I were in the same team with Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo has told France Football he believes he might have won the Ballon d'Or more times than Lionel Messi if they had played in the same team but described his rival as "a great player."

Barcelona forward Messi, 29, came second to Ronaldo, 31, in the 2016 vote, but has five Ballons d'Or to the Real Madrid man's four.

Portugal captain Ronaldo polled a massive 745 points -- over 400 more than Messi -- in this year's poll, which canvassed a handpicked panel of journalists worldwide.

On whether he would have claimed the award more times had they played in the same side, Ronaldo said: "It's a difficult question. I don't know.

"It would be interesting to see both of us in the same team. I think great players should play together. So if we were in the same team, I think I would have more than him, but he wouldn't be far off.

"Everyone knows Messi is a great player. He's won five Ballons d'Or."

He said he was hopeful he would draw level with the Argentina star's tally in 2017, saying: "I'm going to try. I'll be in the fight, as always, but my objective now is to win the Club World Cup, an important trophy.

"After that, to win La Liga. It's a title that Real wants to win. And if possible, the Champions League again and the Copa del Rey. I always want to win everything."

Though Madrid missed out on the league title despite his 35 goals in 36 league games, Ronaldo won the Champions League as well as Euro 2016 with Portugal.

Ronaldo, 31, also said he is planning on reducing the demands on his body, having played at least 30 league games for Madrid in each of the last six seasons, even if his ambitions remain high.

"It's a totally normal thing. Not only for me," he said. "With age, every human loses something but gains something else.

"I always look at how to be at my best physically and in my game. I think of all that, not only for this season but for the next as well. For example, to manage the matches, in the sense of not playing everything.

"You have to be intelligent. To train as well as possible, to have a more personalised preseason. And to think a little more about the end of the sesaon, not only the start. It's not a sprint, but a marathon. You have to use your head. Not only me, but also those around me. There are a lot of people who advise me at Real among those who look after me directly. I'm going to learn.

"You have to do it, and accept reality, which is that I am 31. It's not easy, because I feel really good, but I see that the recovery after games is not exactly the same. It's a little slower, particularly when I have put in very intense effort every three days.

"It's impossible to always be at your best, even for a youngster. If I look after myself, I think I can have a very long career."

The former Manchester United man, who scored 12 goals in 17 competitive appearances for Madrid this season, did acknowledge he would also be happy to change position if he were no longer able to be as effective on the pitch as he is in his current role.

"Why not? It's an idea to think about," he said. "I'm ready and I accept things change. It's not a problem.

"I don't just have the ambition of winning the Ballon d'Or. The main thing is to play football, to train in the rain, the cold. When I no longer feel that desire to play and to train, I'll stop. In life, everything has a beginning and an end. Even more so in football.

"I know that there will come a time when I can no longer score 50 goals a season, nor win the Ballon d'Or or even be nominated. It's a normal process. In two or three years, I don't know if I'll still be nominated. But I hope so."

Cristiano Ronaldo dominates Lisbon as he returns with Real Madrid

As Real Madrid's forward Ronaldo, returns to Lisbon, the country's capital city is already decorated with photos and billboards of the playmaker who led the nation's team to their first European Cup trophy in France this year.

Billboards carrying Ronaldo's image promote everything from sportswear to blankets. Even the Real Madrid forward's mother, Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro, teams up with her son in a commercial for communications company Meo, which sees the two play out a modern-day version of "Home Alone," with Ms. Santos Aveiro only remembering her son is home alone when she takes off on a flight.

Images of Ronaldo and his mother look down at commuters in seemingly every carriage on Lisbon's Metro system, so there really is no escape from the man who will return to play against his former club, Sporting, for only the second time on Tuesday, since leaving to join Manchester United for £12.24 million as an 18-year-old in August 2003.

Ronaldo is back, but spending half a day in Lisbon is enough to suggest that he has never really gone away.

The front page of Record, Portugal's daily sports newspaper, on the day of Ronaldo's arrival in Lisbon on Monday was a picture of the 31-year-old, half in a Sporting strip, the other half in the colours of Real, under the headline "Divided Loyalties."

Diario de Noticias produced a two-page spread on the "making of Ronaldo," turning back the clock to the player's days as a young boy in Lisbon, following his arrival from Madeira. It tells the story of Ronaldo's visits to his favourite restaurant, O Magrico, and displays images of his unremarkable old apartment on Avenida Duque de Loule, close to the site of the hotel that now bears his name.

And the Pestana CR7 Hotel, in the Chiado district of Lisbon, is no ordinary hotel.

On check-in, one of Ronaldo's quotes -- "Your love makes me strong, your hate makes me unstoppable" -- greets you at reception, and a video screen in the bar to the left allows guests to stand alongside footage of a ball-juggling Ronaldo as though they were actually standing next to the man himself.

Walk into the lifts, and a mirror on the back wall becomes a video screen, with each floor chronicling a different year of Ronaldo's career, showing images of him in the colours of Sporting, United, Real and Portugal as you climb the building.

But just in case you had forgotten where you were and whom the hotel was a living monument to, once you step out of the lift, the "Viva Ronaldo" chant from his days at United is piped through speakers in the corridor.

While it may seem little more than an exercise in hubris to have a hotel carrying your name, Lisbon has now grown to love Ronaldo, despite his quirks and faults.

A product of Sporting, he will always enjoy the affection of the supporters of that club -- special messages are set to be unveiled by fans at the Real game on Tuesday -- who have not forgotten his refusal to celebrate the goal he scored for United on his only previous return to the Estadio Jose Alvalade in September 2007.

It has been a different story with supporters of Benfica, Lisbon's biggest club and Portugal's most famous team, who jeered and whistled the teenage Ronaldo when he played at Estadio da Luz with United in December 2005.

Ronaldo reacted by flicking an obscene gesture to his tormentors, which only served to increase the volume, but when he went back to Benfica with United the following September, his heroics in helping Portugal to the 2006 World Cup semifinal had earned him the respect of those previously hostile fans.

And so it has gone ever since, with his passion for Portugal winning over those who once enjoyed baiting him. Jorge Jesus, the Sporting coach, admitted ahead of Tuesday's game that it would be his "dream" for Ronaldo to return to the club, even as a 37- or 38-year-old when his Real contract expires.

The prospects of that happening remain slim, with MLS expected to be the only potential destination once he and Real part company, due to Ronaldo's desire to exploit his fame and celebrity in a manner similar to that of David Beckham once he has to contemplate life after playing.

But his affection for Sporting is strong, and he remains respectful of the role the club played in propelling him to the stardom he now enjoys.

As such, he will wear a specially designed pair of Nike boots in the Alvalade on Tuesday, with the date of his seminal performance against United (Aug. 6, 2003), which earned his move to Old Trafford in 2003, stitched into the heel. Back then, he was a virtual unknown in Portugal's biggest city. Now he dominates every corner of it.

Report: Manchester United have biggest wage bill in world football

Manchester United have the highest wages in world football according to a global sports salary survey, produced annually by the Sporting Intelligence website.

United's first-team squad earn £5.77 million-a-year basic salary on average, which is £110,961-per-week. That is reportedly more than double the average basic first-team pay in England's top division, which is £2,438,275-a-year or £48,766-a-week.

The club are the fourth highest paid in world sport, behind Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA (£6.54m average), New York Yankees of the MLB (£5.81m) and LA Clippers of the NBA (£5.78m). The next highest football clubs on the list of world sports teams are fifth-placed Barcelona (£5.64m) and ninth-placed Manchester City (£5.42m).

In the Premier League, the two Manchester clubs were followed on the list of big spenders by Chelsea (£4.51m), Arsenal (£3.71m), Liverpool (£3.01m) and Tottenham Hotspur (£2.68m).

The lowest wages in the Premier League were at Burnley (£0.95m), Bournemouth (£1.1m), Hull City (£1.22m) and Middlesbrough (£1.22m). They were still higher than the average wages for Scottish champions Celtic (£0.71m).

The findings showed that United have three players in the top 10 of best-paid players in world football. Paul Pogba was fifth (£15.1m per year or £290,000 per week), Wayne Rooney was eighth (£13.5m per year or £260,000 per week) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic was 10th (£13m per year or £250,000 per week).

No other Premier League players were in the top 10 of that list, which included four from La Liga and three from China. The best-paid players were jointly Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi, who brought in £18.98m per year or £365,000 per week.

The Premier League, though, pays more than double the average salary of their nearest competitors La Liga (£1,239,295) and Serie A (£1,105,633).

Premier League average pay has multiplied by almost 32 times in 25 seasons, from about £77,000 in 1992-93. United's first-team salaries have risen from about £140,000 per year in the first Premier League year to more than 40 times that amount.