Ronaldo
,
Spanish: ), "Boy Wonder", "The Kid", and among other names. Ronaldo's speed, dribbling ability and goalscoring instincts have made him into what many believe to be one of the greatest footballers of all time.
He was named by
Pelé as one of the
top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. Ronaldo has enjoyed success at the international level, winning the
1994 and
2002 FIFA World Cups with Brazil. Ronaldo has won three
FIFA World Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2002). Ronaldo and former
Real Madrid teammate
Zinedine Zidane are the only two men to have won the award three times.
Ronaldo was born in
Bento Ribeiro, a neighbourhood in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Like many of his contemporaries, he began to play football in the streets of his neighbourhood.
In April 1999, Ronaldo married
Milene Domingues. The marriage lasted four years and ended in
divorce. The couple had a son, Ronald (born 2000). In 2005, he got engaged to Brazilian model and
MTV VJ Daniella Cicarelli, who became pregnant but suffered a
miscarriage; their relationship lasted 3 months after their engagement. He is currently dating Brazilian
supermodel Raica Oliveira. Writer Andrew Downie asserted a correlation between Ronaldo's personal life and performance on the pitch, noting that his most prolific periods of goalscoring have coincided with the times when he was happily married
In 2005, Ronaldo became co-owner of
A1 Team Brazil, alongside Brazilian motorsports legend
Emerson Fittipaldi. The team participates in the newly launched
A1 Grand Prix series, with
Nelson Piquet, Jr.,
Tony Kanaan and
João Paulo Oliveira as drivers.
Ronaldo's footballing abilities were first recognised when he was 14. He was recommended to the Brazil youth team by
World Cup winner
Jairzinho, who also arranged for his own former club,
Cruzeiro Esporte Clube, to sign him when he was old enough for a professional contract. Ronaldo scored 12 goals in 14 games in the Brazilian National Championship, and in the Minas Gerais State Championship he scored all three goals in Cruzeiro's 3-1 victory against arch-rival Atlético Mineiro. He was soon transferred for US$6 million to
PSV Eindhoven, and later attracted the attention of Spain's
FC Barcelona. He played for Barça in the 1996-1997 season, scoring 34 goals in 37 appearances (47 in 49, including appearances in the
Copa del Rey and
European Cup Winners Cup), then transferred to
Inter Milan the following year.
Voted the
FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and 1997, he also scored four goals and made four assists during the
1998 FIFA World Cup. Brazil lost the final to hosts 3-0 after he suffered a
convulsive fit the night before.
Adrian Williams, professor of clinical neurology at Birmingham University, said that Ronaldo should not have played, saying that he would have been feeling the after effects of the seizure and that " there is no way that he would have been able to perform to the best of his ability within 24 hours of his first fit -- if it was his first fit."
A year after the 1998 World Cup, he severely injured his right knee and was out of the game for several months. During his first comeback in 2000, he played only seven minutes during a league game against
Lazio before injuring his knee for a second time.
After two operations and 20 months of rehabilitation, Ronaldo came back for the
2002 FIFA World Cup, in which he scored two goals against in the final. Ronaldo was the
top scorer of the 2002 World Cup with eight goals, helping Brazil win their fifth World Cup title. Later in 2002 he won the
World Player of the Year award for the third time, and transferred from Inter to
Real Madrid for approximately €39,000,000, after frequent disputes with Inter coach
Héctor Cúper. His transfer to Madrid was the subject of a media frenzy not just laced with the usual hype because of his reputation, but more so because he was now the third successive
Galactico (or superstar) signed in as many years by the Spanish giants as part of their policy of signing the world's biggest superstar football players in order to maintain their levels of success whilst broadening their reaches of fame.
Ronaldo was such a well known signing that sales of his shirt on the day of his signing alone broke all records the world over. Proof of his fame came with the fact that even though Ronaldo was sidelined through injury until October 2002, fans continued to chant his name in the stands. Ronaldo scored twice in his debut for Real Madrid. That same reception was observed on the night of the final game of the season against
Athletic Bilbao, where Ronaldo scored again to seal his first season with 23 league goals (not including the goals in the
UEFA Champions League that included a
hat-trick away at
Manchester United) and the
La Liga Championship title for 2003, which Ronaldo had previously failed to win whilst at
FC Barcelona.
According to reports, Ronaldo turned down a ten-year, US$120 million contract from
Red Bull New York of
MLS in 2006, saying, "Right now I have a contract with Real Madrid and I'm only thinking about the World Cup, but without a doubt, the American market is one of my goals for the future."
But in a statement issued to the press, Red Bull denied having made an offer.
The arrival of
Ruud van Nistelrooy has made the future of Ronaldo uncertain at Real.
International career
|
Celebrating a goal for Brazil |
Ronaldo made his international debut for
Brazil in 1994, in a friendly match in
Recife against
Argentina. He was known then as Ronaldinho, since
Ronaldo Guiaro, his team-mate on the
1996 Olympic Games was called Ronaldo, because he was older. The current
Ronaldinho was known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho until the Ronaldinho-to-Ronaldo change occurred. He went to the
1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA as a 17-year-old but did not play.
Ronaldo won the
Golden Shoe as the top scorer in the
2002 FIFA World Cup with eight goals, two in the final against
Germany. He also equaled
Pelé's Brazilian record of 12 World Cup goals, adding to the four he scored in the
1998 tournament.
On
June 2 2004, Ronaldo scored an unusual
hat-trick for Brazil against arch-rivals
Argentina in a
CONMEBOL qualifier for the 2006 World Cup, scoring all three of Brazil's goals from the penalty spot.
Although Brazil won their first two group games against Croatia and Australia, respectively, Ronaldo was repeated jeered for being overweight and slow, although
Carlos Alberto Parreira kept him in the starting lineup in face of calls to have Ronaldo replaced. With his two goals against
Japan in the
2006 FIFA World Cup, he became the 20th player ever to score in three different FIFA World Cups. Ronaldo scored in the
1998 FIFA World Cup, the and the
2006 FIFA World Cup. On
June 27 2006, he broke the all-time World Cup Finals scoring record of 14, held by
Gerd Müller after scoring his 15th World Cup goal against
Ghana in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Round of 16. He also equaled a much less talked about mark: with his third goal of the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo became only the second player ever (
Jürgen Klinsmann being the other) to score at least three goals in each of three world cups. As of
July 1, 2006, he had scored 62 goals in 97 international matches.
[Ronaldo player profile at the official 2006 FIFA World Cup site] Ronaldo's bid for successive World Cup titles ended with Brazil's 1-0 loss to France, led by
Zinedine Zidane. His team managed only one shot on goal and
BBC commentator
Martin O'Neill described him as a "
stone overweight" during the match. In the wake of this defeat 29 year-old Ronaldo pledged that he will play for Brazil in the years to come and in the 2010 World Cup.
Following the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo had surgery on July 16, 2006, to remove calcifications from his left tibia.
*
FIFA World Player of the Year: 1996 (youngest winner), 1997, 2002
*
European Footballer of the Year (
Ballon d'Or): 1997, 2002
*
UEFA Most Valuable Player - 1998
*
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002
*
FIFA World Cup**
2006 All-Time World Cup Goalscorer - 15 Goals
**
2006 Bronze Boot - Third Top Scorer 3 goals & 1 assist in 5 games
**
2002 Golden Boot - Top Scorer 8 goals
**
2002 Silver Ball - 2nd Best Player
**
2002 Winner**
1998 Golden Ball - Best Player
**
1998 Runner-up**
1994 Winner*
Brazilian Cup: Cruzeiro 1993
*
Dutch Cup: PSV Eindhoven 1996
*
Cup Winners' Cup: FC Barcelona 1997
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Confederations Cup: 1997
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Copa América: 1997, 1999
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UEFA Cup: Internazionale 1998
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Intercontinental Cup: Real Madrid 2002
*
European Super Cup: Real Madrid 2002
*
La Liga - Primera División champions: Real Madrid 2002/2003
*
Spanish Super Cup: FC Barcelona 1996, Real Madrid 2003
*
Official site*
Real Madrid profile*
FIFA World Cup profilebat-smg:Ronaldo
