Cristiano Ronaldo’s rags to riches background is well documented, but the Portuguese great once ate binned leftover McDonalds every day.
Ronaldo and forgotten failed wonderkid Fabio Paim were team-mates in Sporting’s fabled academy but their lives took on completely different paths. Paim was once tipped to be better than Ronaldo but his career fell apart before it had even begun.
Paim, three years the junior of the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, never playing with Ronaldo on the pitch but the pair knew each other off the field, and he revealed how the two of them would go to a McDonalds near their accommodation in Lisbon.
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Paim told The Sun: “When we used to play in Sporting and lived in the academy, we lived in the stadium. At night we used to go McDonald's to pick up the burgers that no one wanted anymore so they weren't good to sell.
“We were there every night for the burgers. Yes, Sporting knew. It's not like nowadays. We were allowed to go out.”
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Paim admitted that although he and Ronaldo weren’t besties, he classed the great as a friend, he added: “We were friends. I can't say best friends but we were friends. I had holidays with him. One was in Brazil, it was my first time in Brazil, before Euro 2004.
“That was Cristiano’s first European Championships in the senior Portugal team and we went on holiday before it. I trained with the national team but was too young to play. If I was older, I could have been there.”
Paim and Ronaldo’s lives couldn’t have panned out any differently despite spending their childhood together. As Ronaldo went on to become the greatest goalscorer football has ever seen, Paim splurged his huge wages of upwards of £7,000 a week as a teenager on cars and partying.
Despite Ronaldo saying: "If you think I'm good, wait until you see Fabio Paim," when he signed for Manchester United in 2003. Paim never made a senior appearance for Sporting and embarked on a journeyman career, making lucrative moves to support his lavish lifestyle.
Paim was arrested in 2019 and put in a cell for a year on suspicion of drug trafficking offences but was cleared after the case collapsed. He now spends his time visiting football clubs, schools and universities, spreading the message about the shortfalls on his career.
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