Fabio Paim: “I went to McDonalds every night with Cristiano, we ate the leftovers…”
Portuguese former player Fabio Paim shared his experiences with the Al Nassr star during their early days in Sporting Clube’s youth academy.
Cristiano Ronaldo is enjoying life in Saudi Arabia. At the start of the year, the Portuguese star signed a million-dollar contract of around 200 million euros per season. He has another two seasons to run on his deal with Al-Nassr which means that he will be around 40 years old by the time it expires and will have pocketed a substantial amount of money.
He has come a long way since his humble beginnings in Madeira. We know a little more about his childhood days thanks to Fabio Paim, who was his team mate at Sporting Clube de Portugal’s youth academy. Those were difficult years for Cristiano in which every day was a struggle just to survive. He did it together with Paim, one of the other talented players who stood out at the Lisbon-based club, although three years younger.
“At night we would go to McDonald's to pick up the hamburgers that no one wanted anymore and that were not good to sell”
“During our time at Sporting, we lived in the academy halls of residence. 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,” he explained in an interview with UK media. “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 always remember Ronaldo as a great worker, really committed and someone who wanted to be the best”
“The first time I met Cristiano I was eight years old, I was new at Sporting and we went to a tournament in Madeira. “We had good times together, really good times. Football was not so serious at that time for us. We could enjoy being kids. But I always remember Ronaldo as a hard worker, really committed and someone who wanted to be the best. He has always been like that, upset when he lost. That effort has taken him to where he is now. Even today, he doesn’t need to play but wants to be the best,” he admitted.
“He’s won everything that he could, there is nothing left. But it is a result of that effort when we were kids. Not even he knew he would be where he is now. I believed he was going to be someone in football, a good player but on the level that he achieved? At that time, no,” Paim acknowledged.
Different paths
Ronaldo left Sporting to join Alex Ferguson at Manchester United in 2003. One of the phrases that will remain for posterity is: “If you think I’m good, wait until you see Fabio Paim...” But it didn’t really work out for Paim. After training at the Portuguese club, he went on loan to Chelsea in the 2008-2009 season. After travelling the world, he ended up retiring in 2021 after a spell in Poland with LZS Starowice.
“I regret some of the choices I’ve made but knowing myself as I do, it was impossible to be at Cristiano’s level. But yes, at that time I was better than Cristiano. He should give me one of his Ballons d’Or!” he admits with humor.
Several years so since their academy days, Paim accepts that he will never get to play alongside Cristiano again - two knee operations have made him fearful of getting injured: “No, to be honest, I don’t want to play with Cristiano again. I’m afraid to enter the field because I know I’m going to be injured. If he asks me, I would go. I don’t even know if he remembers I exist”.