Ronaldo

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, best known as Ronaldo, is a legendary Brazilian forward born on 18 September 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Ronaldo started out his professional career with Cruzeiro in 1993. A promising young hopeful impressed already his debut season as he scored 12 goals in 16 matches and led the club to their first Copa do Brasil. In the next season, he enjoyed even better fortune scoring 22 goals in 18 matches thus helping Cruzeiro to win the Campeonato Mineiro.

Thanks to his outstanding performances, Ronaldo became the main target of top European clubs. In 1994, he joined the Dutch powerhouse PSV Eindhoven. His first season in the Netherlands was a success as he scored 30 league goals in 33 appearances and pulled off the 1994/95 season as the Eredivisie Top Scorer. However, affected by injury problems, Ronaldo had to sit out the majority of the 1995/96 campaign.

Ronaldo became a superb transfer coup for Spanish heavyweights Barcelona ahead of the 1996/97 season. During a year stint he recorded Copa del Rey, Spanish Super Cup and UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup with Barca. The following year ‘the Phenomenon’ moved to Inter Milan who drew a bead on him years ago. With the Nerazzurri, Ronaldo claimed his second European title in the form of the UEFA Cup.

In 2002, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid. He scored a brace and earned a standing ovation during his debut game for Los Merengues. In April 2003, the Brazilian striker scored a hat-trick in a Champions League quarter-final match against Manchester United and received an ovation from both sides of fans. All in all, Ronaldo scored 118 goals in 194 appearances in all competitions for real Madrid during a five-year stint. After that, he switched to Italian side AC Milan and in 2009 Ronaldo returned to Brazil where he joined Corinthians at the end of his professional career. He retired in 2011 due to physical fitness problems.

Ronaldo was a regular international for Brazil amassing 62 goals in 98 caps in between 1994 and 2011. He was an instrumental player for his side during the 2002 FIFA World Cup edition as he scored a brace in a 2-0 final win over Germany. Ronaldo has collected a myriad of awards among which are the three FIFA World Player of the Year titles. It’s a tidbit that he is one of only three players along with Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi who claimed this honor three times. In the 2006 World Cup edition Ronaldo set up a record as the World Cup highest goalscorer with his 15 goals, surpassing Gerd Müller’s previous record of 14.