Brazilian football legend Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, popularly known as "Ronaldo", is reportedly set to open three football schools in separate major cities in China in December, the head of the project announced on Saturday.

Beijing, Shanghai, and Mianyang (a city in the country's southwest Sichuan region) are the first three cities that have been chosen to have a Ronaldo Academy set up within them before the end of this year, according to Xinhuanet.

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Paulo Swerts, Ronaldo Academy manager for China, said the football schools in the abovementioned sites "are expected to start operation in December", barely half a month from now.

Swerts also disclosed that Ronaldo will provide football coaching staff for 30 different schools in China as part of a long-term project in the country.

The retired footballer, also known as "The Phenomenon" during his playing days for the Brazil national team, announced in September his intention to set up 30 football academies across China. According to Ronaldo, the initial three cities are just the beginning of his long-term partnership with the country's football community.

NDTV Sports reported that 39-year-old Ronaldo visited Mianyang last Saturday with his business affiliate Brazilian billionaire Carlos Wizard Martins, to attend a local middle school "promotional event" to help spread awareness and excitement about football among the country's youths.

The Ronaldo Academy is a brainchild of the Brazilian and world football legend and Martins. It aims to produce "100 football schools worldwide by 2020", eight of which will be opened in Brazil, the United States, and China by year end.

Ronaldo is hailed as one of the best strikers and goal scorers in the history of the sport. He has a career total of 352 goals in 518 matches for different world class football clubs such as Barcelona, Inter Milan, PSV Eindhoven, AC Milan, and Real Madrid. He also scored 62 goals in 98 appearances as a Brazil international from 1994 to 2011.

TagsFootball, Football 2015, Football News 2015, China Football 2015, China Football News, China Football News 2015, Ronaldo, Ronaldo news, Ronaldo news 2015, The Ronaldo Academy