#9 A tribute to the greatest striker of my generation!

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima better known as Ronaldo today retired from football at the age 34! In the modern game he may go down as a forgotten man over the last 15 years he was no doubt the greatest forward I've ever seen!



Beginning of his career:

I am too young to say I remember his PSV days but with a goal record of 42 goals in 46 games you can see why he caught the attention of European Giants Barcelona.
What is more impressive is 30 goals came in his first season in 95' with 12 coming in his second season which was cut short with a knee injury that kept him out for the rest of the season.




Barcelona:

With a goal record of nearly 1 in every game played it took a then record fee of $17 million from Bobby Robson's Barcelona to prize him away teaming him up with players such as Ivan del la Pena, Hristo Stoichkov and Guillermo Amor!

The season of 1996 - 97 saw Ronaldo better his goal record from PSV scoring 47 goals in 49 games leading Barcelona to the Copa del Rey (Spanish Cup) and UEFA Cup Winners Cup; scoring the winner.

At the age of twenty, Ronaldo became the youngest player to win the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and was runner up for the Ballon d'Or - an honour now held play Lionel Messi and in the past has produced winners such as Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo who are among the great players to win this award.

Here is a link for some of the best goals scored by Ronaldo for Barcelona! Goal three and goal four are prime examples of the attributes of Ronaldo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JKf78lVorg

Inter Milan:

Ronaldo's spell at Barcelona was brief and Inter Milan paid $19 million to bring him to the San Siro. It was at Inter Milan where he made the most development as a player, retaining his FIFA World Player of the Year status in 1997 and that year going one better and capturing the Ballon d'Or. Ronaldo helped Inter win the UEFA Cup in his first year, defeating Barcelona on the way and scoring the third goal in the Final. There was no doubt in his time at Inter Milan he was the best player on the planet.

On November 21, 1999, during a Serie A match against Lecce, Ronaldo felt his knee buckle and was forced to limp off the pitch. Medical exams confirmed that the striker had ruptured a tendon in his knee and would require surgery.


In April 2000 on his comeback he played only seven minutes against Lazio before injuring his knee for a second time. Ronaldo would require two further operations and months of rehabilitation and did not return until the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan where Brazil would win their fifth World Cup title.

Here are some of the goals Ronaldo scored for Inter Milan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi5JxduLwOo&feature=related

The goal at 1 minute 15 seconds is my favourite Ronaldo goal where he dummies the keeper not once but twice sending him completely the wrong way before going to the keepers right and sliding the ball home into an empty net.

Three's a charm:

After winning the World Cup in 2002; Ronaldo became the World's Most Expensive Player for the third time in his career as Real Madrid paid $39 million to add him to a form an invisible team named as 'Los Galácticos' including Ronaldo, Figo, Zidane, Roberto Carlos and Madrid's own Raul! Later in 2002 he won the World Player of the Year award for the third time - something only Ronaldo and Zidane have done in their careers.

Real Madrid:

Ronaldo did not feature for Real Madrid until October 2002 but his transfer broke shirt sale records in his first day as a Real Madrid player due to the hype and obsession that surrounded such a high quality name and player. On his debut he scored twice and received a standing ovation at the Bernabeu. An ovation similar followed on the last day of the season when two goals (23 for the season) from Ronaldo against Athletico Bilbao secured Real Madrid the La Liga Championship - something Ronaldo did not win during his time at Barcelona.

Something that will always stay in my mind over the career of Ronaldo is the 2nd leg of the Champions League quarter final against Manchester United, which finished 4-3 on the night where Ronaldo scored a fantastic hat-trick - his third a 20 yard screamer flying past Fabien Barthez. Not only was Ronaldo fantastic but the game was one of the best football games I've ever witnessed and one that is sometimes forgotten as a classic! Interestingly this is also the game where David Beckham was left on the bench by Ferguson after the famous 'hairdryer' incident which led to Beckham being sold to Real Madrid where he did play alongside Ronaldo.

Here's the highlights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA8JjzYMQOA

Talking of David Beckham and his friendship with Ronaldo here is a Facebook post from David Beckham on Ronaldo's retirement.....

Here's the highlights... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA8JjzYMQOA

David Beckham Tribute:

Talking of David Beckham and his friendship with Ronaldo here is a Facebook post from David Beckham on Ronaldo's retirement.....

"I just want to say to my friend Ronaldo what an honour it was playing with him and becoming his good friend... He was not just an amazing person but along with Zidane, one of the most talented and gifted players in football history and I was honoured to have been in the same team as him whilst at Real Madrid...Well done my friend..."

Friendship! Beckham celebrates with Ronaldo at Real Madrid

The Decline:

In 2006 was where Ronaldos career really began to decline; one of the reasons that is sometimes forgotten when you make comparisons to such players like Zidane, Figo and Raul for all-time greats to players now such as Messi, Ronaldo and Kaka! Ronaldo under Capello at Real Madrid was frozen out and complaints where Ronaldo refused to train after injuries and claims of him being over-weight shadowed what had been so far a fantastic career.

In January 2007, Ronaldo agreed to sign for AC Milan where he scored 7 goals in 14 appearances including goals against his former club Inter Milan and is one of the few players to have scored for both teams to have scored for both Milan teams in the derby!

In January 2007, Ronaldo agreed to sign for AC Milan where he scored 7 goals in 14 appearances including goals against his former club Inter Milan and is one of the few players to have scored for both teams to have scored for both Milan teams in the derby!

A year later in February 2008 Ronaldo's career at the top came to an end, suffering another ruptured ligament this time in his opposite knee, the third time he suffered this injury in his career. His career at AC Milan was over and was released at the end of the season after his contract was not expired.

Returning home to Brazil:

In 2009 in an attempt to regain fitness and resume his career at the age of 32, Ronaldo trained with Flamengo and was set to join before in a highly conversational move joined rivals Corinthians in a one year deal. Ronaldo helped Corinthians win the Brazil Cup and finished with 12 goals in 20 games; an impressive come back for a man who was thought would never play again. Just over a year later, today in February 2011 Ronaldo announced his retirement after Corinthians was eliminated in the 2011 Copa Libertadores and threats from Corinthians' supporters.

International Career:

At International level Ronaldo represented Brazil 96 times and scored 67 goals, 15 of those coming in World Cup's which is still a record. Ronaldo won two World Cups in 1994 and 2002 and lost in the World Cup final in 98 to France 3 - 0 in a game that was over-shadowed by the performance of Ronaldo who was not fit and should not have played.

At the 2006 World Cup Ronaldo was once again taking the headlines, jeered by his own fans for being over-weight and slow there were claims Ronaldo should of been replaced. Ronaldo became the 20th ever player to score in three World Cups and became the second player ever to score 3 goals in three World Cups after Germany's Jurgen Klinsmann.

In a career that span from 1993 for Cruzeiro and ended in 2011 back in Brazil at Corinthians, Ronaldo scored 420 goals in 620 appearances and ratio-ed a goal every 0.6 games. Ronaldo is one of two players ever to win the FIFA World Player of the Year three times along with Zinedine Zidane, winning two World Cup medals, La Liga and the UEFA Cup at Inter Milan. The only major honour Ronaldo did not win was the UEFA Champions League; an amazing fact considering he represented the four biggest European clubs outside of England!

A tribute to the greatest striker of my generation!

In my short life time of 21 and a half years I have never seen a striker better - Ronaldo was the complete package, the ideal 'number 9' and the king of the step-overs! His pace, power, skill, ball control and finishing qualities made him unstoppable at times and when the ball was at his feet there was simply no-stopping him! It is a great shame such a wonderfully gifted player and career was cut-short due to three serious injuries, you can only ever imagine what his goal record and honours list would of been like if it had not been for injuring his knee twice at Inter Milan keeping him out for nearly two years!

Ronaldo was my first football hero and to me he is the greatest striker to have ever played the game and the only player I can imagine ever going beyond his abilities is Lionel Messi; who already is the winner of the Champions League and two times FIFA Player of the Year winner at the age of 23! Ronaldo is the best player of the last twenty years and to me - the greatest striker of my generation.

Below shows the stats and figures of his career and surely prove my point.

Club Goal Record:

1993 Cruzeiro 14 (12)
1994–1996 PSV 46 (42)
1996–1997 Barcelona 37 (34)
1997–2002 Inter Milan 68 (49)
2002–2007 Real Madrid 127 (83)
2007–2008 AC Milan 20 (9)
2009–2011 Corinthians 31 (18)
Total 343 (247)

International Caps/Goal Record:
1994–2006 Brazil 97 (62)

Professional career totals:

Clubs: 515 (352) 0.683
National Team: 97 (62) 0.639
U-23 National Team: 8 (6) 0.750
Total: 620 (420) 0.677