Cristiano Ronaldo: the Cherry on Top

Since very little, Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, started to show great talent for football, which made him relate from his youth on to professional football in Portugal, joining the Clube Desportivo Nacional, where he began his formation and development as player and where had the opportunity to stand out on his country.

With the needed abilities to play soccer well developed, Ronaldo continued advancing and in until 2001 he united to Sporting Lisboa, one of the most important teams on Portugal’s First Division, where with the support of his partners and the coaching and medical staff achieved to sharp his style and raise his game level. Thanks to the work done on his career, Cristiano Ronaldo, gets his official debut on October 2001 as a professional footballer at the Portugal’ Superliga with 17 years old. His impressive plays made him shine to convert himself in a regular player on the field for Sporting that on the same year won the league championship.

For 2003, the talent of the #7 ‘Red Devil’ was already being seen out of the borders of Portugal, an evidence of it was the great impression it cause on Manchester United at a friendly encounter for the Euro Cup. After calling the attention of Sir Alex Ferguson, he immediately started the negotiations with the Portuguese star, to include him in the British team. Ronaldo started with Manchester replacing David Beckham, who at the time transferred to Real Madrid.

On his first period with at England, Cristiano Ronaldo showed one more time his football talents guiding his team to a victory on the FA Cup. The huge progress shown by the player on the British club, made him worthy of the title for Best Young Footballer at a world level, obtaining the FIFPro 2005 and 2006. Another success on 2005 was scoring the 1000 goal for the Manchester United on the Premier League.Besides owning a big load of personal distinctions at an international level, this Red Devil has as well several achievements at a team level that United has attain thanks to Ronaldo’s assistance; this important titles include Carling Cup, Community Shield, FA Premier League and the last UEFA Champions League edition.As member of Portugal’s national team (with which debuted on 2003), the young man of 23 years old has also demonstrated to be an important figure for, after Euro 2004 in which Portugal ended up as runner-up. For the World Cup 2006 even though his country could not make it further the semifinals, remaining on the fourth place, the performance of the Portuguese was supreme.

The speed, ability, commitment and skills in Ronaldo are characteristics that many players and clubs whish to have, the best example right now is Real Madrid that expects to incorporate him on their lines. The Spaniards was not able to signed him due to the renovation of the succulent contract between the Red Devils and the star, that decided to stay with the squad that had been giving him so many triumphs and saw him grow in his little but successful career.

All the effort made by Ronaldo along this year, recently made him laudable of the Ballon d’Or 2008, prize turns him into the Best Footballer of the Year and places him above other great players, such as Lionel Messi, Fernando Torres and even Kaká, who won the trophy last year.

Oscar De La Hoya - From Glory to Failure

Oscar De La Hoya became famous since his early years in boxing, his big debut as a professional boxer came along in Barcelona’s 1992 Olympic Games, where attained the gold medal, triumph that send him to fame and opened all doors to a full of successes career that turned him into one of the best boxers of the 90s.

Great abilities, clean technique, talent and a good punch are the characteristics that can describe the beginnings of Oscar’s career, who found his first main triumph before Julio César Chávez, one of the best Mexican wrestlers at the moment. The spectacular victory placed the Golden Boy confidently among the middle weights, converting him in the third boxer (of 4 total) to obtain the record of sextuple world champion in different categories; previous De La Hoya were Thomas Hearns and Héctor Camacho, and subsequent James Toney.

In September 1999, after 31 consecutive victories a big test for Oscar De La Hoya developed, having to confront Tito Trinidad, who had as well an unbeaten record. The tough wrestle in which none of the fighters gave up, prolonged until the 12th round and following the decision taken by the judges, the Mexican-American boxer suffered his first defeat. From then on, the professional live of one of the best ones ever, would start to have ups and downs.

The desire of becoming the ultimate fighter in middleweight leads the Golden Boy to seek for revenge for the beaten he got 3 years earlier (2000), by Shane Mosley, who ended up overcoming the Hispanic strikes and to pound him for the second time.

Since his last encounter with ‘Sugar’ Mosley in 2003 and until today, the results of his fights have finished alternately on glories and failures. The conquers were obtained facing Felix Sturm, Ricardo Mayorga and Steve Forges; while the defeats were against Bernard Hopkins to whom he lost the chance to win the titles to be King of the Middleweight in 2004; then after Floyd Mayweather Jr and in his last clash on December 6th, 2008 against the Filipino Manny Pacquiao, WBC Lightweight Champion, whom due to his lower height and weight, was seen as the possible loser.

Pacquiao controlled the combat most of the time with excellent moves and powerful hits, punishing stoutly his rival, who doesn’t show a promising future.

In the last 4 years the Golden Boy has announced twice his retirement from the boxing world. The first time was subsequently to the thrashing he got from “The Executer” Hopkins and frustration kept him out for almost 2 whole years; the second time was in 2007, but on that occasion the break didn’t last long time for De La Hoya, staying off the ring just a year

Currently the rumors say that the 35 years old boxer will withdraw, at least the professional fights, especially after accepting that his physical condition is not as good as it used to, which was pretty obvious during the competition with Manny ‘Goliath’ Pacquiao. For the moment all left is to wait for the public announcement, which is what everybody is expecting from this boxer titan of our times.