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Continuing with our series on the greatest footballers of all time, here’s No. 4 on our list.
No. 4 – Ronaldo
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, or simply Ronaldo, is a legend of our times. The now retired Brazilian footballer lit up our screens in a way that footballers since have failed to match even by a fraction. A poacher, a striker, a target man; Ronaldo was all that and more; he was the ‘original’ Ronaldo.
Initial Years
Born in the September of 1976, Ronaldo started his career on a negative note: he tried, and failed, to get into his boyhood club Flamengo. But then he found his way to Cruzeiro, where he scored 12 goals in just 14 appearances, leading the club to its first Copa do Brasil championship.
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The next year, PSV Eindhoven was keen on adding Ronaldo to their ranks despite him being just 17 then. He didn’t make the first team for the international squad in his initial years, but amassed 30 league goals in his first brush with the Netherlands. The following year a knee injury sidelined him for a bit but his scoring boots were on for good. PSV eventually won the Dutch Cup in 1996, and Ronaldo managed to top the scoring charts in 1995.
Club Career
Ronaldo represented the crème de la crème of clubs across the world. He wore shirts for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Corinthians, in that order.
After his spectacular burst on to the scene with PSV, only Barcelona could afford his then-record price of $17 million. At Barcelona, he started with a bang, scoring 47 goals in 49 games. He became the youngest player to win the FIFA World Player of the Year, and helped his side win the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de España.
Surprisingly, Ronaldo left the Catalonian shores right after the first season due to disagreements over the renegotiation of his contract. Inter Milan thought the time was ripe for a record $ 19 million bid and they landed one of their best strikers till date. Quickly becoming the best player in the world, the Brazilian adapted smoothly to the Italian league. He picked up the FIFA Player of the Year for the second year in a row, and left the opposition spell-bound with his wide array of tricks and definitive moves on the pitch. Ronaldo wasn’t one to stand on the shoulder of the last defender, given his comparatively slow pace, but as a poacher, the man could do no wrong.
An injury saw him miss the 2000-01 season and he never really came back to work for the Italian side. His next move to Real Madrid only bolstered his image as a superstar; joining the Galacticos was a masterstroke. He picked up a blistering 104 goals in 177 appearances with the Spanish side, and his hat-trick against Manchester United in a Champions League quarterfinal is regarded as one of his best performances. But all good things must come to an end, a bitter end at that. With Fabio Capello at the helm, the addition of Nistelrooy saw Ronaldo lose favor with the manager, essentially paving his exit. Around the same time, Cristiano Ronaldo was making a name for himself, and the Brazilian, no stranger to namesakes, was left with the worst pseudonym the fans could conjure – Fat Ronaldo.
His weight and injury issues pervaded his time post-Milan, and a slow striker is not an optimum solution for a football club. When AC Milan showed interest in 2007, Ronaldo had to accelerate the process by paying up part of his release clause, since Madrid weren’t letting up and Milan couldn’t afford him.
At AC Milan, Ronaldo tried to revive his glory days, but the injuries wouldn’t bid goodbye. A season-ending injury in 2008 showed him the door after his contract wasn’t renewed, and the world’s best player was left without a club. While at the Italian side, he became only one of two footballers in the world to have scored for both Inter and AC Milan in the Derby della Madonnina, the other being Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
His final transfer saw him choose Corinthians over Flamengo, which was a shock considering his loyalty to the latter. But after the uneventful 2011 season, Ronaldo finally hung his boots up, saying, “It’s very hard to leave something that made me so happy. Mentally I wanted to continue but I have to acknowledge that I lost to my body.”
International Career
Starting as a 17-year-old, Ronaldo didn’t find a cap in the 1994 World Cup, but within four years of that, Ronaldo was already the best in the world. He scored 4 goals during Brazil’s route to the final in 1998, but suffered from a convulsive fit the night before the final. Still, he forced the manager to get him on the field, and his performance was way below par as France took the Cup 3-0.
In the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldo’s scoring boots were on fire as he managed to score against every team except England, totaling 12 World Cup goals, matching Pele’s record. He found the net twice in the final against Germany, putting an end to the Oliver Kahn vs Ronaldo debate. The unstoppable force had successfully surpassed the immovable object, although with a toe poke.
By 2006, Ronaldo was overweight and not fit enough. France managed to pip the team in the quarter-finals but not before Ronaldo had managed to score in three different FIFA World Cups, and registering at least 3 in each of the editions.
The Player
Despite never winning the UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo at his best was everyone’s darling. His bucked teeth became a fashion and his hairstyles were copied by hordes. During the 2002 South Korea edition of the World Cup, his quirky hairstyle had people donning the look across the globe. The Golden Shoe winner was a player of class, and his ability to find the net is still unmatched in terms of quality and presence of mind. His didn’t have a bagful of varied tricks, but he had the game sense of a genius. He is one of only three players to have won the FIFA Player of the Year award three times (the other two being Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi). He is also the only player to have bagged the Golden Ball and Golden Boot in separate World Cup tournaments.
A string of serious injuries and suspected hyperthyroidism left the striker no choice but to leave what he did best, but at the end of it all, Ronaldo will always be counted amongst the best players ever to have graced the football ground.
And now, here’s a compilation of some of the most insane displays of skill by the Brazilian:
These are the other players who have made it so far:
No. 20 – David Beckham; No. 19 – Oliver Kahn; No. 18 – Jurgen Klinsmann; No. 17 – Luis Figo; No. 16 – Romario; No. 15 – Marco van Basten; No. 14 – Eusebio; No. 13 – Lionel Messi; No. 12 – Zico; No. 11 – Paolo Maldini; No. 10 – Michel Platini; No. 9 – Puskas; No. 8 - Lothar Matthäus; No. 7 – Franz Beckenbauer; No. 6 – Alfredo Di Stefano; No. 5 – Johan Cruyff
Read the detailed write-ups on all the players in this list here:
The greatest footballers of all time
