Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid put Madeira on the global map

For centuries, sailors and wine merchants knew Madeira as a remote stop between Europe and the New World. Its steep green cliffs, laurel forests and terraced farms shaped the lives of those who lived close to the sea but far from global attention. Then a boy from Funchal laced up his first pair of cleats, and everything changed.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s journey from a modest island childhood to football superstardom turned Madeira, an island in the Portuguese archipelago, into more than a dot on a map. When he sprinted down the field for Real Madrid, millions watched not only an athlete but the pride of a small Atlantic island. Today, flights land daily with visitors eager to see where it all began, tracing the path from the CR7 Museum to the beachside neighborhoods that shaped one of the worl