A goal to Ronaldo, a Ronaldo to the world; Albert Fantrau changed the course of football’s history

Football has given birth to numerous inspiring stories. From Lionel Messi suffering from growth hormone deficiency to Angel di Maria living in penury and working in a coal mine; the struggle of football players has inspired millions of people around the world. However, there is one story about a legendary player which is not known by many in the world. To be honest, the story is not about the player but his teammate. 

The lesser-known story is about Cristiano Ronaldo’s former teammate Albert Fantrau; the man who gifted Cristiano Ronaldo to the world. Almost two decades ago when Cristiano Ronaldo was a kid, he had Albert Fantrau in his team. It is not known that the two players were at which club then, but during a match, a scout arrived at the scene from an academy based in Andorinha, Madeira. 

The scout announced that whichever player scores the maximum number of goals, that player will be selected by theAndorinha-based club. During the match, the first goal was scored by Cristiano Ronaldo whereas his friend Albert Fantrau scored the second goal. After two goals, Fantrau was in a one-on-one situation against the opponent team’s goalkeeper. Therefore, he had the chance to score a brilliant goal. 

However, Fantrau made a surprising move and passed the ball to Ronaldo instead of scoring himself. Ronaldo took the chance and scored the third goal. The match ended with two goals from Ronaldo, and he was selected by the scout. After the goal, Ronaldo went to Fantrau and asked why? Fantrau replied by saying, “Because you are better than me.”

The story came to the limelight when Real Madrid picked up the Champions League trophy in 2014. After the match, which was held in Lisbon, Ronaldo ran to the sidelines and pulled Fantrau from the crowd to hug him. Ronaldo himself narrated the incident by saying, “I have to thank my old friend Albert Fantrau for my success. We played together for the same team in the U-18 championship. When a scout came to see us, he said that, whoever scores more goals shall come into our academy. All he had to do was to score that goal but he passed it to me and I scored the third goal, so I got that spot and went to the academy.”