Cristiano Ronaldo

We’ve all watched our favorite players clambering down the stairs of the team bus looking relaxed and prepared, the very visage of concentration.

Making their way into the bowels of the stadium to make their final preparations before the match, there’s always one constant in their appearance: headphones.

The staple of the modern athlete, these hulking contraptions, along with a carefully crafted pre-game soccer playlist, blot out any external noise, allowing our heroes to stay focused on the task at hand. 

Cristiano Ronaldo has a new pair of boots coming out, and, consequently, Nike and Ronaldo are really ramping up the advertising campaign. The Nike Mercurial Superfly was supposedly inspired by Ronaldo's home island in Portugal, Madeira, as this video shows.

What troubles us is the phrase "these boots have goals." We don't know what it means. It could mean any number of things. 

Cristiano Ronaldo is the boss. He is the boss of you. He is the boss of your boss. He is the boss of everyone, with the possible exception of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is also the boss.

What makes a man the boss of everyone? Owning a $320,000 car and sitting on it like it's no big deal. 

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi need no introduction on the field. The two play for the two biggest teams in the world, are the two best players in the world, and are the two most recognizable faces in soccer. As such, every year the debate of Messi vs Ronaldo flares up, and this year is no different. 

So, in order to provide some fuel for the fire, we here at The18 have taken up the task of comparing Messi vs Ronaldo in an assortment of ways: the basics, professionally, financially, and even a light social segment. 

Let’s begin. 

Cristianinho, as Ronaldo’s cute son is called, is just about one of the most adorable kids in the world. And if you are susceptible to that kind of thing, you are going to want to sit down when watching this video. It makes this father and son relationship look like a bromance made in heaven. We present, the Ronaldo Bromance. 

Legendary Arsenal striker Thierry Henry once said that he would have his son study Thomas Muller, should his son take to football as a passion. It was interesting, because one would think that he would have had his son study one of the two best players in the world: Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. Henry’s logic was that, while he admires Ronaldo and Messi, they are freaks of nature, inimitable.

Sharpen your proverbial knives, unabashedly flaunt your club allegiances and, if you’re Javier Mascherano, pray that Roy Hodgson has spent the year canvassing for your cause. It’s the 2015 FIFA Ballon d’Or shortlist!

It's been speculated that Cristiano Ronaldo will leave the comforts of Real Madrid for the MLS when his contract is up in 2015, but the 30-year-old striker has admitted to having different plans.

“I want to win more. I still feel good, I feel young,” he told Marca. “I am 30 and I want to play five or six more years, and in that time I want to do things right and maintain the level of recent seasons. I know that it gets harder all the time, but in my head I think it’s possible."

Cristiano Ronaldo should be thrilled. He won his fourth European Golden Shoe, awarded to the leading scorer in all of Euope's domestic leagues. 

He might not be thrilled, though, because there was one member of the audience who couldn't care less what he won: his son.

Cristiano Ronaldo's son flipped the bird at his dad during Cristiano's acceptance speech. Though the gesture was quickly twarted, the cameras caught the devious act.

Ronaldo's son might be in for a time-out.

Many small children, like Cristiano Ronaldo's son, as a consequence of having been able to talk for only a very short time, have speech impediments. The vast majority of these children grow out of it (and if they don't there is nothing wrong with that) and grow up to be adults whose parents show them videos of them trying to talk as a small child and everybody has a good laugh.

One such occasion occurred recently in Cristiano Ronaldo's life. A leaked portion of his new documentary shows his son, Cristiano Jr., trying, and struggling, to say his own name at his father's request.