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#4 The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo
On the 26th of June 2009, Real Madrid broke the world record fee and completed the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United.
The young boy from Madeira would now be the most expensive player in the history of the sport. A fee that seemed astronomical would prove to be the bargain of the century as the investment in the Portuguese international would give mind-blowing returns.
The former Sporting CP winger was brought to Old Trafford when he was only 19. It took the boy a single touch and a crafty turn to get the crowd off their feet as the teenage sensation took the Premier League by storm.
The winger won everything there was to win with the English Club, and also lifted his first Ballon d'Or. The highlight of his United career was winning the UEFA Champions League, beating their arch-rivals Chelsea in an 'All English' final.
The young Cristiano had caught the attention of clubs all over the world and when Los Blancos came knocking, the Portuguese star couldn't resist. In April 2009, Ronaldo made the move to his dream club, and nothing would be the same again.
The Red Devils had once again lost a key player to Los Blancos, and there was nothing they could do about it. Cristiano was Real Madrid's next Galactico, and undoubtedly their best.
A team that seemed to be a shadow of its former self, was about to be rejuvenated by arguably the greatest of all time. The glory days would return for the Spanish Giants as they would go on to win everything in the next few years and go back to being a dominant force in club football.
Real Madrid won 3 UEFA Champions League titles, 3 Club World Cups and 2 La Liga titles since the signing of their biggest Galactico. Cristiano also went on to win the Ballon d'Or 4 more times and the Golden Boot thrice as a Real Madrid player.
Scoring the decisive penalty against local rivals Atletico in the final of the Champions League, Heading home a cross against Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey Final, scoring a hat-trick in the Club World Cup final, netting 10 goals in 5 matches in the final stages of the Champions League 2016-1017 that included a brace in the final, were some of the few invaluable contributions made by the winger.
8 years later, one can undoubtedly claim that the future of Real Madrid could be very different if not for the world-record signing of the Portuguese. The deal that got Cristiano to the Bernabeu played a very crucial role in the club's history.
If not for the man who would go on to become the club's top scorer, Real would have achieved perhaps only a fraction of what they actually did.
The 5-time Ballon d'Or winner has played some magical football at his dream club, and seems very likely to retire there, and widely hailed as Madrid's finest signing of all time.
