Ronaldo Story

Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima, known as Ronaldo or Ronaldo "Fenômeno", was born on September 22, 1976 in Rio de Janeiro.

Image Source

His family was a poor family and like most children Ronaldo was passionate about football.

Ronaldo started to play football not in the football of 11 but in futsal at Valqueire tenis Clube.

Image Source

At the age of 14, in 1990, Ronaldo changed from Valqueire Tenis Clube to Social Ramos Clube.

Image Source

In the middle of that year he even tried to train at Flamengo, which was his heart club, but due to not being able to catch the 4 buses he had to catch to get to training he ended up going to play for São Cristovão which besides to be closer to his home the club paid him the transport pass.

Image Source

Ronaldo played for São Cristovão from 1990 to 1993.
During this period he was offered to São Paulo and Botafogo, however neither of the two clubs managed to reach agreement with São Cristovão.

Ronaldo even playing in a smaller club was called up for the South American Under-17 Championship to represent Brazil. Despite the bad championship of the national team, Ronaldo demonstrated his talent by scoring 8 goals and being the best scorer of the competition.

This sparked the interest of Cruzeiro, who would eventually hire Ronaldo for $10,000.

Image Source

Ronaldo made his debut for Cruzeiro's main team in 1993, he was 16 years old.

From the first day of his arrival at the club he was treated as an outstanding player.

Ronaldo scored his first goal in a friendly match against Os Belenenses (Portugal).
At the end of the game he was given a standing ovation by Os Belenenses fans.

At the end of the friendlies in Portugal Ronaldo already had European clubs probing him, such as Inter Milan.

Ronaldo stood out in the championship by scoring 12 goals in 14 games. This made him the top scorer in the league.

In the 1993/94 season he stood out again in the Mineiro championship where he scored 22 goals.

These good performances led to the fact that Ronaldo, only 17 years old, was called up for the selection to participate in the 94 World Cup in the USA.

Image Source

However Ronaldo did not participate in any game.

After the World Cup, Ronaldo reawakened the interest of European clubs and was eventually transferred to PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands) for 6 million dollars.

Image Source

At Cruzeiro Ronaldo, in just over a season and a half, he played 46 games and scored 44 goals.

It didn't take long for Wonaldo to demonstrate his talent on PSV.

In the first season he was the best scorer in the championship with 54 goals in 57 goals.

However, in the 1995/96 season, the first problems with his knees started to appear, having one of them operated on in February 1996.
The doctor advises Ronaldo to have a slower recovery to ensure that he would recover to 100%, but Ronaldo in April was already back in the games.

After his return, Ronaldo became more of a substitute than a starting player, which made him uncomfortable due to the few opportunities he was given.

This meant that Ronaldo, after returning from the 1996 Summer Olympics, signed himself to Barcelona and his transfer cost him 20 million dollars.

Image Source

In his first season at Barcelona, still in the 1995/96 season, he soon made a big impact.
All football lovers were amazed by Ronaldo's speed and dribbling ability.

This season he has scored 17 goals in 20 games.
ending up being elected for the 1st time the best player by FIFA (he was only 20 years old and became the youngest player in history to win this award).

Image Source

In the 1996/97 season Ronaldo was La Liga's top scorer with 34 goals in 37 games. In addition, he won the King's Cup and the European Super Cup.

Image Source

This season he was showing a great level of performance and everything looked good but some kind of dissatisfaction in Ronaldo started to be noticeable.
This dissatisfaction was related to the fact that he asked for a salary increase and the Barcelona president refused.

This led to Ronaldo being transferred to Inter Milan for 32 million dollars.

Image Source

Ronaldo arrived at Inter with some pressure on his back due to the expectations that everyone had of him and due to the fact that Inter did not win the championship in 7 years.

However, Ronaldo did not disappoint, ending the 1997/98 season with 14 goals in 19 games.
This made him win again the prize for best player in the world of FIFA and even won the golden ball.

Image Source

It was at this time that Ronaldo won the nickname "Phenomenon" given to him by the Italian press due to the level that Ronaldo played on the pitch.

Ronaldo represented Brazil in the World Cup in 98 where they reached the final against France but lost 3-0.

Image Source

The 1999/2000 season was not a good one for Ronaldo, as he was seriously injured in the knee during a championship game. This took him 5 months out of the competition.

Ronaldo returned to competition on April 12, 2000 in a game against Lazio (Italian cup final) but after 5 minutes on the pitch his knee went out of place.
This took Ronaldo another 15 months out of the competition.

In the 2000/2001 season, Roanldo underwent his treatment and was gradually beginning to enter the field.
He would again compete in a UEFA Cup game. However Ronaldo had several physical problems that did not allow him to play many games.

In the 2001/2002 season, Roanldo was rarely used at Inter.
Even so, Ronaldo was summoned to the 2002 World Cup, where Brazil won its 5th title as world champion.

Image Source

Before the World Cup there were a lot of doubts about Roanldo's physical condition since he had almost no competition and Ronaldo ended up being a key player in winning the title.

In the transfer market after the World Cup, Ronaldo was hired by Real Madrid and cost 39 million euros.

Image Source

In the 2002/2003 season, the first season with Real Madrid, Ronaldo won the title of La Liga champion and was the competition's top scorer with 23 goals.

Ronaldo after these achievements was again voted the best player in the world.

Image Source

Despite these titles and goals initially, his life at Real Madrid was not easy, as he was booed in his first games due to him not having a constant income.
These boos only ended when Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in a Champions League game against Manchester United.

In the following seasons Ronaldo even had good performances but Real Madrid, even with their super team, did not win relevant titles.

In the 2006/07 season, after the hiring of Van Nistelrooy and due to his excess weight, Ronaldo started to lose space in the team.
This led Ronaldo on the 18th of January 2007 to transfer to AC Milan in a transfer that cost 7.5 million euros.

Iamge Source

At Real Madrid Ronaldo scored 104 goals in 177 games.

It was at this time that Ronaldo was diagnosed with hyporitoidism and it was this disease that made him overweight.

The storm at the service of AC Milan was not very good, as Ronaldo was injured in a game which kept him from the pitch.
At the end of this season AC Milan did not renew their contract.

At AC Milan Ronaldo scored 9 goals in 20 games.

After the end of his contract Ronaldo went to train at Flamengo (great club in Brazil) to recover from knee surgery and be able to return to the pitch. However Flamengo never made a proposal to hire him.

This led Corinthians to make a proposal to Ronaldo and hire him.

Iamge Source

Ronaldo made his debut for Corinthians on March 4, 2009 and in his 2nd game, in the derbi against Palmeiras, he scored his 1st goal guaranteeing a draw.

even though he was more than happy with Roanl, he stood out and showed his value, having been a key player in winning the Paulista championship and the Brazilian Cup.

Here is one of the great goals this season

In the 2009/2010 season, Ronaldo played very little due to his poor physical condition and injuries that appeared more regularly.

In 2011, after the early elimination of Corinthians in the Libertadores Cup, Ronaldo announced his retirement at a press conference on February 14th.

The justification for this decision was that the physical pain was increasing and that he could no longer endure it in order to be able to play an entire 90-minute game.

After an injury, I thought hard at home and decided that this was the moment. - that I was not going to wait any longer had really given my best and that I never imagined I could get here. It is very hard to abandon what makes you happy, you have so much love and could follow, because mentally and psychologically I still want a lot. But I also have to take some losses ... I lost to my body!

Ronaldo in his career scored 414 goals in 618 games and won several titles.