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Footballers are famous all over the world because of their exploits on the football pitch and their names actually become brands in course of time. However, It is not very common for 2 footballers to have the same name. There have been players with similar names in Holland or Romania or Brazil but very rarely one comes across players who have absolutely identical names.
However, there have been some players, who actually share the same name or surname. In some of the cases, both the footballers sharing that name have gone on to become famous footballers. We would discuss 3 such famous pairs of namesakes of world football:
1. Ronaldo (Brazil) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal):
Ronaldo of Brazil remains one of the finest strikers in world football. He is one of the few players to have won both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot in World Cups. He has also featured in 2 World Cup-winning squads for Brazil.
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Ronaldo was known for his exceptional physical strength, quick dribbling and rasping pace and was termed as 'O Phenomeno' or 'The Phenomeno' is the 1990s. He played for big clubs like PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid and scored 352 goals in 518 club matches, apart from winning the La Liga and Serie A titles. He also scored 62 international goals in 98 matches for the Brazilian national team. Ronaldo was the recipient of Ballon D’Or twice in his illustrious career.
Cristiano Ronaldo burst into world football when the senior Ronaldo was in the twilight of career. He was signed on by Manchester United in 2003 and spent 6 very successful seasons with them. He moved to Real Madrid in 2009 and became an even better player there.
Ronaldo has won every possible honour including the Champions League, La Liga and EPL titles in his career. He has also won the Ballon D’Or 5 times and scored 584 goals in 781 matches in his club career. He has also scored 85 goals in 154 matches for the Portuguese national team and won the Euro 2016 with them.
2. Luis Suarez Miramontes (Spain) and Luis Suarez (Uruguay):
Luiz Suarez Miramontes was one of the legends of FC Barcelona, Inter Milan and the Spanish national team. He played for Barcelona from 1955 to 1961. Suarez had to contend with the great Real Madrid side of the 1950s, but could still manage to win 2 La Liga titles for Barcelona in the 1950s.
He went on to play for Italian clubs like Inter Milan and Sampdoria as well and scored 115 goals in 458 matches at the club level. He managed to win 3 Serie A titles and 2 European Cups for Inter Milan. He was an attacking midfielder known for his exceptional playmaking abilities and skillful game.
He also played 32 international matches for the Spanish NT and scored 14 goals. Besides, he also won the Ballon D’Or in 1960. Suarez later went on to become the manager of the Spanish NT and coached their team in the 1990 World Cup.
Luis Suarez of Uruguay is one of the finest players born in his country. He is a striker who can play as a centre-forward as well and is known for his opportunism, sudden acceleration in the penalty box and finishing abilities.
He became famous while playing for Ajax Amsterdam and was signed on by Liverpool in 2010. He played for Liverpool from 2010 to 2013 and scored 82 goals for them. After that, he was signed on by Barcelona in 2013 and has scored 161 goals in 216 matches for them. He also won the La Liga and Champions League with Barcelona.
In all, he has scored 381 goals in 579 club matches till date. Those brilliant stats make Suarez one of the best goal-scorers of his generation. Suarez has played in 3 World Cups for his country as well and scored 55 goals in 106 matches for them.
3. Eder (Brazil) and Eder (Portugal)
Eder was a famous left winger of Brazil, who played for the national team from 1979 to 1986. He earned 52 international caps and scored 8 goals. He was a member of the famous Brazil squad in the 1982 World Cup, which lost 2-3 to Italy in the quarter-finals.
He was famous for his powerful shots and probably remains the most powerful shooter in the history of football. He scored some goals from free-kicks too. Eder mainly played for Brazilian clubs like Cruzeiro and Botafago and won the Brazilian league as well.
Eder of Portugal is now 30 years old and still has a few years left in him at the top level. He has, however, played in 35 matches for his national side and scored 5 goals.
Eder also scored the most important goal in the history of Portuguese football, when he beat Hugo Lloris with a shot from outside the penalty box in the final of Euro 2016 to win the championship for his country.
Eder has also played for clubs like Swansea City, Lille and Lokomotiv Moscow and already scored 79 goals in 326 matches. He is still expected to achieve more landmarks in his career.
