Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese international who plays for Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid C.de F., can play either as a striker or a winger. The player became the most expensive footballer in history when he moved to his current club, from English Premier League champions Manchester United. According to reports, his transfer deal was worth £80 million (€94m, US$132m). In addition, his six-year contract with Real Madrid would see him paid a salary of £11 million per year. During his time in England, Ronaldo became the first player ever to win all four major awards in the country, a feat he achieved in 2007. The next year, the winger won the coveted UEFA European Champions League (an intercontinental club tournament) with Manchester United. In addition, he was named the FIFPro, World Soccer and Onze d’Or Footballers of the Year for 2008. Following his move to Spain, Ronaldo, during the 2011 season, scored the most goals, during a single season, in the club’s history, by netting 51 times compared to the tally of 49 set by Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás. Reuters

Barcelona

Barcelona has rounded their pre-season tour of the U.S.A with a comfortable 2-0 win over Mexican league side Club America in Dallas on Saturday. Barcelona reacted well to their shock 4-1 defeat to Chivas last week with a dominant display that was worthy of more goals. Goals from David Villa and Seydou Keita gave the European Champions their easy victory.

"We played well in the first half but did not have the same intensity in the second after the changes," declared the Barca boss, "but in general we played better than in previous games. The main thing was that the pitch was better," Guardiola said after declaring his was happy with the reaction of his players.

Pep Guardiola started with the team many pundits expect to start the first leg of the Super Cup against Barcelona on Saturday and his side showed a better defensive display as well as greater fluency through midfield. Barcelona will be boosted by the news that Lionel Messi has returned to training with the Catalan club. Lionel Messi has joined up with team mates after an extended vacation was granted after Messi represented Argentina in the Copa America. Dani Alves, Javier Mascherano and Alex Sanchez also returned to pre- season training.

Real Madrid

Real Madrid ended their mammoth commercial preseason tour by beating Chinese league side Tianjin Teda 6-0 on Saturday night. Jose Mourinho was said to be very pleased with the way his side went about the game and praised the attitude of his players.

"Big players are all out on the pitch, and opposing coaches know (what the fans want), because they did not play big defending matches," Mourinho said, referring to his team's two friendlies in China. "Although these are just two commercial matches, we adopted a serious attitude because Real has to keep up its good reputation," Mourinho added.

Real Madrid also thumped Chinese super league leader Guangzhou Evergrande 7-1 on Wednesday night. But he said the two friendlies weren't as easy as the results indicate. Because of the time difference and pressures from the fans, Real Madrid had to give out some of their best shots in China.

Early goals from Kaka and Angel Di Maria set Real Madrid on their way with Gonzalo Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema completing the rout. It was a rather drab affair with Real Madrid dominating the game from start to finish but the game was livened up with the introduction of Cristiano Ronaldo in the 70<sup>th minute. The former Manchester United star linked well with Benzema and showed the quality that Real Madrid will need in next week's Super Cup double header with Barcelona.