Cristiano Ronaldo beat Barcelona F.C. forward Lionel Messi to win the 2016 Ballon D’Or award for a fourth time on Monday.
The prize, now separated from Fifa and backed by France Football magazine, is awarded to the best football player of the year, determined by the votes of nearly 200 journalists around the world.
Ronaldo won the title after leading Real Madrid and Portugal to the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Euro 2016 Championship titles respectively.
The mercurial forward has been playing football since the age of eight, and has since become one of the highest-paid athletes in sporting history.
This is the story of how Ronaldo went from child prodigy to one of the most famous faces in football.
Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo beat Barcelona F.C. forward Lionel Messi to win the 2016 Ballon D'Or prize for a fourth time this week.
The winner was revealed on Monday night.
Ronaldo is currently the world's highest-paid athlete across all sports, earning an estimated £43 million from Real Madrid. Including his sponsorship deals and other earnings, he is thought to have a net worth of between £210 million and £230 million.
Source: Business Insider , The Sun
So how did Ronaldo become the biggest name in football?
Ronaldo was born in 1985 in Funchal, the largest city on the Portugese Madeira Island. He has two older sisters, Liliana Cátia and Elma, and one older brother, Hugo.
Source: Manchester Evening News
When he was just eight years old, Ronaldo played for amateur team Andorinha, which his father helped to run. After a three-day trial with Sporting Lisbon, he was signed to the team on a £1,500 contract and moved to the Portuguese capital to train at the football academy.
Source: Manchester Evening News
Ronaldo was "discovered" at the age of 17 during the World Under-17 Championships, where several major European clubs noticed his talent for acceleration and agility. In 2003, at just 18 years old, he played with Portugal's national team, Clube Desportivo Nacional, known as Nacional.
Source: Manchester Evening News
Ronaldo was talented at a young age, and fiercely competitive. In an interview with Sky Sports, Pedro Talinhas, his trainer at Nacional, said: "The word 'defeat' never entered his head. Whether it was at training, exercising or playing a prank, he had to come out on top."
Source: Sky Sports
In the same year, Manchester United bought the athlete for £12.24 million, making him the most expensive teenage player in English football history. The club's manager at the time, Sir Alex Ferguson, called Ronaldo "one of the most exciting young players I've ever seen."
Source: Sky Sports, The Telegraph
He scored his first goal for the team during a 2003 FA Premier League match against Portsmouth.
Source: Guardian
Ronaldo was a controversial player at Manchester United, and became notorious for diving and playing up fouls and injuries.
Source: Telegraph
But he still rose to fame as one of the best players in the world at the British club. Famous for his close relationship with his family, in 2009, he celebrated Manchester United's Barclays Premier League win with his mother, Dolores, ahead of his move to Spanish football club Real Madrid.
His success continued throughout his career in the UK, and in 2008 he won the Barclays Player of the Year, Golden Boot and 30 League Goals awards.
Real Madrid bought Ronaldo in 2009 for £80 million. Since then, he has become their most successful striker on record, scoring more than 350 goals in seven years.
Source: Guardian
He is also one of the richest people in sporting history. In December 2016, his tax form was released, revealing that Ronaldo had declared £191 million (€227.3 million) of overseas assets in 2015.
In June, we looked into how he earns his money, and how he spends it.
Source: ESPN
Despite his fame, he welled up when he was awarded the Ballon D'Or for the second time in 2014.
Though he wasn't as tearful when he picked up the trophy this time. Only one more to win and he will catch-up Lionel Messi.
