Cristiano Ronaldo could claim a second straight Ballon d'Or... 'The Making of Ronaldo' illustrates the Portuguese's sheer desire to be the best from a young age

• Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Manuel Neuer make up the final-three shortlist for the Ballon d'Or, which will be awarded on Monday night
• 'The Making of Ronaldo' documentary aired on Sky Sports on Sunday
•  Programme documents Ronaldo's rise from youngsters to global star
• Guillem Balague catalogues Ronaldo's determination to be the best  

By Mark Webster for the Daily Mail

Published: 19:59 EST, 11 January 2015 | Updated: 07:48 EST, 12 January 2015

'Football was a boat taking him away from Madeira' are the rather florid words - particularly for a football agent, you might suggest? - chosen to describe the incredible journey of an equally amazing footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Poetic licence aside, there also happens to be an element of truth in them. Because as new Sky Sports documentary, 'The Making of Ronaldo' (timed to pre-empt their coverage of the 2014 Ballon d'Or ceremony) tells us, it was the dogged determination of this small-island boy to leave behind his home and his family and chase his football dream, that turned him into the global superstar we know today.

As we discover in this thorough examination of Ronaldo's formative years, he was never just a child prodigy simply waiting for his destiny to fulfil itself. Meticulously researched and delivered by celebrated Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague, 'The Making of Ronaldo' makes it perfectly clear that the young man was personally responsible for making his own good luck. Or as one of his first coaches at the Madeira club Nacional puts it, 'only 20 or 30 per cent was natural ability'.

A documentary about Cristiano Ronaldo's rise, 'The Making of Ronaldo', aired on Sky Sports on Sunday

A young Ronaldo is photographed while in his accommodation during his time at Sporting Lisbon

The Portuguese winger celebrates scoring a goal for Real Madrid in 2012

And the reigning Ballon d'Or holder celebrates scoring for Sporting's youth side

Ronaldo also dazzled Old Trafford crowds earlier in his career while at Manchester United

Yet he was also 'the star and leader'. This desire to turn himself into something more special than anybody else is underlined all the way through the programme. Early on, his childhood friend Ricard Santos is filmed on the distinctly poor street where they played football, and the young Cristiano began to live his dream. 'You could only play short passes', he pointed out from a cramped concrete strip they called a pitch. 'But he could beat players the length of it.'

From here on in, we hear from a succession of men, all of who had a hand, in some way, in his future, and all of who again underline the unique commitment he displayed. Not least of which when, at the tender age of 11, he left his family behind on Madeira to make the big leap and join Sporting Lisbon's academy.

Here, we discover, he was around three or four years younger than his fellow football students. But it didn't take long for then head coach Luis Lorenco to commit to keeping him at the club. He tells the tale of how on the second day of his week-long trial, Lorenco was told by his fellow coaches to check this eleven-year-old out.

Ronaldo dedicates Ballon D'Or win to Eusebio

Ronaldo holds aloft the Ballon d'Or trophy, which he claimed last January and hopes to retain

Former Sporting director of football Carlos Freitas says Ronaldo told him he would be the best in the world

Ronaldo moved to Nacional in 1995 before heading to Sporting in 1997

The winger takes a shot for Sporting Lisbon, a club he spent five years at before leaving for Old Trafford

Ronaldo moved to Nacional, a club on the island of Madeira, in order to further his footballing education

He then explains that, at a throw in, Ronaldo turned to a boy at least three years his senior who was marking him a little too tightly, and said 'hey kid, calm down'. It was, says Lorenco, the moment Cristiano was in.

But he was still only a child and this separation from heart and home was proving the ruination of even older boys than him. 'The toughest days are birthdays' one dad tells us of his own son's absence to further his football life.

While former English football favourite Luis Boa Morte, now a coach at Sporting, also points out that some boys can 'get lost' in the big city, before adding 'it's cruel to have to choose at 12 or 13, but it's how you get your start'. This wasn't lost on young Ronaldo and in spite of some homesickness and occasional waywardness, he continued with his quest to be better than the rest.

Ronaldo (right) took himself away from his comfort zone in order to develop as a footballer

During training Ronaldo (left) has water poured over him by a Sporting team-mate

Ronaldo was football mad from a very young age and he started at Andorinha before moving to Nacional

'I will be the best footballer in the world,' Sporting's Sporting Director Carlos Freitas tells us he told him. And Freitas had no reason to disagree. Especially when for instance, as he points out, 'the security people would have to close the doors, and turn the lights out in the gym' to prevent him taking the extra sessions he thought would help set him apart from the rest.

'The Making of Ronaldo' contains a wealth of first-hand testimony from those that were part of the story... as well as a few interesting glimpses at the places the kid stopped off at along the way.

However, it does rather lack a physical presence to walk us through the story - Guillem is more often than not, unseen and unheard - and as such it does feel rather like an extended news report. Nevertheless, such is the strength of the journalism, you are never in doubt that what we're hearing is the inside track on the promising young boy who became a footballing Galactico.

And if - as we see him doing in the last picture of the documentary - Ronaldo once again lifts football's golden globe aloft, 'The Making of Ronaldo' will have gone a long way as to reminding us why.

Luis Boa Morte, who now works at Sporting Lisbon's youth academy, also features in the documentary

A young Ronaldo stands looking through the nets while on the pitch at Sporting's training ground

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