The great players have an uncanny ability to make football look easy. From sublime touch to mesmeric movement and a lightning of change of pace, they can produce moments that are literally breathtaking. It is a select group to which membership must be earned over a prolonged period and on the biggest stages.
Ronaldo is a fully-fledged member and when he announced his retirement, he brought down the curtain on a rollercoaster career packed with highs and lows, but one that will live on in the memories of fans across the globe.
As a comparison tool for the best players in the world, the expression ‘on their day’ is often used to justify one player’s very best being slightly ahead of a rival. By that same measure, Ronaldo had no equal ‘on his day’ throughout the first half of his career.
The "Fenomeno" as he was soon dubbed, burst onto the scene as a goalscoring machine, freakishly powerful and mind-boggling quick. In the 1996/97 season, he scored 47 goals in 49 games for Barcelona. If there was a more explosive player in world football, no one had seen him.
It was the late Sir Bobby Robson who brought Ronaldo to Barcelona from PSV Eindhoven and often hailed the striker’s pace, power and physique. And Robson is not alone. Just recently, stars such as Ronald Koeman, Kaka and Ronaldinho paid tribute to the Brazilian’s genius.
Having experienced the magnetic pull of the World Cup as an unused substitute in 1994, when Brazil lifted the trophy in the USA, Ronaldo’s love affair with the competition would continue for more than a decade.
In 1998, he scored four goals to propel Brazil to the World Cup final, only for the now-infamous pre-match fit to strike down his chances of adding another chapter to that particular story. Reports would later suggest the fit could have been a reaction to injections he received throughout the tournament to treat a knee injury, but the truth has remained a source of fierce debate.
Then followed a patch of major disappointment and bad luck, during which it was hard not to sense that Ronaldo’s prime years were slipping away from him. Having left Barcelona for Inter in 1997, the Brazilian picked up two serious knee injuries and failed to add to the UEFA Cup he won in his first season in Italy. Inter had signed the striker for close to £20M, but it was never quite the right fit.
Four years after the World Cup final heartbreak in Paris, he would not be denied. With many people writing him off as a fading force, Ronaldo rolled back the years in Japan/South Korea with some vintage performances. He was not the striker of old, but he still had the pace, movement and eye for goal to torture defenders. And that famous, beloved toothy grin was on full display.
He netted eight times, including a brace in the final against Germany, as Brazil achieved redemption for the 1998 upset. Skipping on to 2006, he would pass Gerd Muller as the top career goalscorer at World Cups on his way to 97 career caps for Brazil.
A move to Real Madrid after the 2002 World Cup saw him join the ultimate "Galacticos" group, alongside Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Luis Figo and later David Beckham. It was a team that promised so much only to achieve little after Ronaldo donned the famous white shirt.
And so there is always a nagging feeling with Ronaldo that he did not win the titles that his talent deserved, in part due to injury. While he won the World Cup twice (counting that 1994 triumph) and reached the final three times, he never won the Champions League, nor reached the final, and he won just one league title – La Liga with Real Madrid in 2003. For all his clinical finishing, his teams were rarely consistent enough to win the major silverware.
The final years in Madrid will be remembered for his weight gain, which has now been explained by the striker’s struggles against hypothyroidism, and limited work-rate, but he still produced impressive goal tallies. Brief, unsuccessful stints with AC Milan and Corinthians did not provide the finale that Ronaldo deserved before tearfully announcing his retirement.
When compiling a list of the greatest players of the past 20 years, the Brazilian would unquestionably be near the top, possibly in the top three. He had it all – the pace of Thierry Henry, the predatory instincts to match Ruud van Nistelrooy and the clever changes of pace that have made Lionel Messi so elusive. It is scary to think how good he might have been without the injuries.
And even when Ronaldo seemed to be past his best in Madrid, he never lost the ability to win games by himself with moments of magic. Regardless of how poorly he was playing or how disinterested he appeared, the genius never fully deserted him. Who could forget the stunning hat-trick and standing ovation he earned at Old Trafford in 2003 as he helped Real Madrid send Manchester United out of the Champions League? Who could find fault with a striker that scored goals at an incredible rate wherever he played?
Injury deprived world football of seeing the very best of Ronaldo throughout his career but, as a goalscorer and entertainer, the Brazilian will never be forgotten.
