Ronaldo Nazário de Lima - The Phenomenon
29 years
2 Golden Ball: 1997 / 2002
3 FIFA World Player: 1996 / 1997 / 2002
1 FIFA World Player Silver: 1998
1 FIFA World Player Bronze: 2003
***VIDEOS ARE AT BOTTOM***
He is nowadays known as El Gordo, or Fat Ronaldo. But once he was called the phenomenonm or even the E.T. Ronaldo became known to Brazil at the age of 16, playing for Cruzeiro, and he was already part of the starting 11.
He was so good, that he was one of the youngest players ever to join a national team in a World Cup. He was only 17 when he was part of the 23 selected players that would win the american World Cup. After that cup Ronaldo was hired by PSV, and was the topscorer in his first season there, scoring 30 goals in 33 matches, an impressive number. He played another season for PSV and then was hired by spanish clube Barcelona.
There, at the season of 96/97, he played insanely well, and many people started to ask if he would be fill the lack that was missing with retirements of players like Maradona and Van Basten. Some even said he could (in the future) be better than them or Pele(). In barça he scored 34 goals in 37 matches, and won his first award as best player in the world. The boy had only 20 years. What could we expect from him?
Next season, 97/98, he moved to Italy, hired by Inter Milan, and some said he would not success there, because of the strong defense of italians clubs. Bullshit, he scored 25 times and was awarded both best foreigner player and best player of the season, also winning again the FIFA best player of the year.
By that time, Ronaldo was already brazilian million dollar boy, loved by the whole population. People even prefered him over the 1994 Hero, Romario. He went to the World Cup of France, in 98, as the best active player, and was holding all the pressure at his shoulders. Sadly Romario was cutted out of the Cup with an injury, and everyone put their hopes on the young one. He played very well in the World Cup, scoring 4 goals and giving some assistances, but Brazil was 3-0ed by France in the Final, with Ronaldo being not even a shadow of his usual. Even though, he was considered the best player of that tourney. A award many say should be given to Zidane.
Then, the dark times came. Ronaldo suffered from many injuries on his right knee, and, after 4,5 months without playing, he was going to restart against *someteam I forgot the name*. He only played like a minute. Ran towards the goal on his usual speed, and then fell on the ground crying. You could feel his pain just by watching it. People thought his carreer was over, and he was only 23. How can a player make so much for football at that age? He lived so many things and went to the top so fast, that it looked like a movie story ending in a melancolic way.
Anyway, Ronaldo stayed something about 1 and a half year away from football, coming back at the end of 2001. He played 10 games for Inter (scoring 7 goals) before he went to the World Cup of Korea-Japan, being a big "?". People didn't trust him entirely, but he adapted his football to his new reality. He was no longer the spetacular Ronaldo we knew from Barça and Inter. He was an efective Ronaldo, with glampses of the old Ronaldo. Everyone knows the story. Ronaldo scored 8 goals, got the Golden Boot, and gave Brazil it's 5th title. At that year, 2002, Ronaldo won both France Football Golden Ball for EUropean PLayer of the Year, and FIFA Best player of the year, being the 1st and only player (at that time) to reach 3 fifa awards.
I won't write anything about Ronaldo at Real Madrid. Not that I don't like it, because I do. Ronaldo is my favourite player. It's just that I wanted to show people who only know the "fat" Ronaldo the player he once was, and the reason some still call him The Phenomenon.
VIDEOS:
Ronaldo Best goals for Barcelona and Inter Milan (44mb):
http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1FIY4CX5GPGJH2DU8AX6CXELDW
Ronaldo amazing dribbles. THIS shows the reason for his nickname. It's a zip file a made, with like 21 files, showing some of his moves. Look for "king of dribble" (28mb):
http://s38.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1FAG1VTLOWTKQ0496C3IHIXZWO
Ps. Everyone knows my english is not good, the only way I try to improve it is reading and writing at this forum, so, PLZ, don't criticise the way I write ok?
Also, I didn't know I wrote so much this time. I was just writing at notepad and when I saw the topic was this big -_-