Childhood club retires number 7 shirt to honor Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo played for two years for third-tier club Andorinha before moving to Nacional.

In an announcement on November 16, Andorinha said that they would permanently retire the club's number 7 shirt. In the future, this number will only be worn by Ronaldo or his direct descendants.

Cristiano Ronaldo played in Portugal as a child.

Retiring a shirt is often used to honor players who have made great contributions to the club, such as Diego Maradona at Napoli with the number 10 shirt. Andorinha's decision, therefore, is not without surprise.

Ronaldo played for Andorinha from the age of 8 to 10. He then went to Nacional, Sporting Lisbon, Man Utd and Real Madrid. The Portuguese superstar made great contributions to the latter two clubs, but he never had the honor of owning his own familiar shirt number.

According to Marca, Ronaldo rarely wore the number 7 shirt when he played for Andorinha. At a young age, players often change their shirt numbers every year, even every month.

Ronaldo only started to have a fixed shirt number when he came to Sporting Lisbon: number 28. It was only when he moved to Man Utd that this player regularly used the number 7 shirt. In his first season playing for Real, Ronaldo even had to use the number 9 shirt, while Raul Gonzalez still wore the number 7.

In modern top-level football, permanently retiring shirt numbers is becoming increasingly rare. When Xavi left Barca last summer, the No. 6 shirt immediately went to Dani Alves. Ronaldo himself inherited the No. 7 shirt in 2010 from Raul, a legend at the Bernabeu.

According to VNE