Energizing My Day..: Cristiano Ronaldo, the next Beckham?

His jeans commercial

Good-looking. Tall. Young. Rich. Talented. A Strong mentality. A heart made of gold. Christiano Ronaldo (22) definitely has the potential to be the next David Beckham.. maybe more, much more.

1. His parents named him "Ronaldo" after the former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan (I thought they got inspiration from the Brazilian football player, yes! That bald Ronaldo, just like Martina Hingis' parents name their daughter after Martina Navratilova).

2. Everytime I heard his name, what first comes in my mind is that world cup's incident, while he was winking at his teammates after Wayne Rooney's was sent off. I was an England team supporter at that time (and I am still their supporter until now), and I was absolutely upset after that incident. Unfortunately, that incident is not the most "interesting" incident in the last world cup, France's Zinedine Zidane definitely get my vote by head-butting Italy's Materazzi. What an exciting World Cup! :)

3. After that incident, in the semi-final against France, Ronaldo was booed every time he touched the ball. Yet he was unaffected by the abuse and showed his true class of playing football, which is, not less than a truly superstar. Although Portugal finally lost to France, he definitely played better than anyone else in the field.

4. After World Cup, he, again, demonstrated that his strong mentality by come back to Manchester United to play with Rooney (although a lot of people recommended him to go to Real Madrid instead), and by the way, if you don't know anything about football or geography, Manchester United is in England, and by now you should be able to connect what happened between Ronaldo and England right?

Ronaldo - Rooney, the are just alright! :)

5. He won both the PFA Young Player of the year and Footballer of the Year, and of course, that prestigious FA Premier League 2006/07 with Manchester United.

OK, enough about the facts. Despite everything, he got my vote as the most charismatic player of the year.. Some of his comments :

- "We were on opposite sides at the World Cup. There are no personal differences. It's all in the past. It's not an issue, it's gone and life goes on." - on his United teammate, Wayne Rooney.

- "Everyone does what he has to do for his country and I did what I had to do. Every player plays for his national team with great love and I was giving great love for Portugal" - his attempt to defend himself after the incident.

- "I am aware of the booing, but I don't pay any attention to it" - on his reaction towards audience's booing in World Cup semi-final against France.

- "It's been a difficult time. There are things that could have gone better and I've had to take a step back and look at them. I've had to see it through, but things have turned out well." - commenting on some of the "sufferings" he received last year, including his father, Dinis, death.

- "There are times when there really is a lot of pressure but I always try to feel good, be on form and concentrate on the game. It's important to have belief in yourself and your ability, which I have."

- "I saw the story on TV and was very moved." - after helping an Indonesian boy, Martunis, whose mother and sisters died in the 2004 tsunami. Ronaldo invited the sad boy to Manchester for a game and he paid for a new house to be built for Martunis and his family. He also made a humanitarian trip for East Timor (which used to be part of Indonesia)