6 Greatest Brazilians to play for Real Madrid

#3 Ronaldo (2003 -2006)

Ronaldo terrorized defenses in his heydey

The ‘original’ Ronaldo grabbed global headlines when he made the squad of the victorious Brazil team at the 1994 World Cup aged 17, and just a year later, he was terrorizing defenses across the Netherlands and Europe with PSV Eindhoven, leading Barcelona to pay a record fee of $19.5m (rather small by today’s standards) for him after just two years in the Eredivisie in 1996.

His spell at Nou Camp was extremely short but so immense (he won the European Golden Boot and was named the youngest ever FIFA Best Player of the Year aged 20) that only a season later in 1997, he was on his way to Italy with Inter Milan for another world record fee $27m (making him only the second player after Diego Maradona to twice be the most expensive player and first to do so in consecutive years).

He performed creditably well at Inter and was largely instrumental to helping Brazil lift the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan (despite a very long injury layoff), finishing as top scorer at the tournament, and leading him to be named as the Ballon d’Or winner and FIFA Best Player of that year.

It is on the back of his World Cup heroics that Real signed him for €46m, making him the third Galactico of the first Perez era after Figo and Zidane, and El Fenomeno rapid back instantly, finishing as top scorer in the league with 23 goals in his debut season and helping Real to her 29th La Liga title.

From then on it went downhill for Real Madrid as despite the plethora of superstars in the squad, it did not translate to success on the field and Los Blancos went three seasons without a trophy which was an aberration to a club its size.

Ronaldo also saw a drop in performances, as he struggled with his lifestyle choices, and had weight problems, preferring to live the nightlife (as with most Brazilians) as against putting in work at training which invariably affected his contributions on the field.

He did show his talents on occasion, but they were largely few and far between which was a far cry from the beast who was arguably the most complete center forward of all time in his prime.

He departed Real Madrid in December 2006 for AC Milan, and his goals record at the Bernabeu reads 104 goals from 177 appearances which is a fairly good return, and was enough to earn him a favorable spot among the Madrid faithful.