Football Special Report: Footballers who have featured in both halves of the San Siro Part 4
Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima, the Brazilian centre forward, who is considered to be one of the best football players in the world, currently plays for Corinthians. Ronaldo made his mark as the most prolific scorers in the world in the 1990’s and won his first Ballon d’Or in 1997 as the European Footballer of the Year. He is only the second player to have won the FIFA Player of the Year award on three occasions. French legend Zinedine Zidane is the only other footballer to achieve this feat.
Ronaldo was named in the best starting eleven of all-time by the French Football Federation. Moreover, he was also included in the FIFA 100, which was a list of the greatest footballers made by Brazilian legend Pele. Ronaldo has represented Brazil in 97 matches, scoring a total of 62 goals along with winning the World Cup twice - in 1994 and 2002. In the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo scored 15 goals to become the highest goal scorer in the history of the World Cup.
Ronaldo started his senior club career in 1993 with Cruzeiro. Ronaldo was an instant success, scoring 12 goals in 14 appearances and played a crucial role in the club, claiming their first Copa do Brasil Championship.
He was transferred to PSV Eindhoven in 1994 for a fee of US$ 6 million, where his first season was a roaring success. The Brazilian legend scored 30 goals and was the Eredivise top scorer in 1995. Ronaldo suffered a knee injury in the season that followed which kept him sidelined for a while, but even then, he scored 12 goals in 13 appearances and PSV won the Dutch Cup in 1996.
His third club, after spending two years at PSV was Barcelona. Ronaldo arrived at the club for a fee of £12 million and continued his goal scoring form. He scored an unbelievable 47 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions in the season, leading the Catalan side to the UEFA Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Supercopa de Espana. He also claimed the La Liga top scorer award with a total tally of 34 goals in 37 games.
Despite being one of the best players at Barcelona, there were problems in renegotiating Ronaldo’s contract. Despite hectic consultations, the deal fell through because the board thought the deal was too expensive. Ronaldo was visibly disappointed and hinted that he wanted to leave. Inter responded to his statement, paying the buyout clause fee in his contract and signing him for the following year for a fee of £19 million. It took the Brazilian super star a little while to adapt to the Italian style but he eventually did and finished as the second top goal scorer in the Seri A. It was in this time that he won his second FIFA World Player of the Year Award and was considered to be the best player in the world at that time.
He would’ve had a longer, more successful career at Inter Milan if it hadn’t been for the knee injury he suffered, which kept him sidelined for a good 5 months. He returned and suffered yet another injury - two surgeries in such a short period convinced Inter they needed to sell him off. Ronaldo was transferred to Real Madrid for €39 million and even though he was unavailable until the end of 2002, his jersey sales broke records on the first day. In his first season, Ronaldo scored 23 goals and Madrid won the La Liga Championship title in 2003, the Intercontinental Cup and the Spanish Super Cup. It was in 2006 that he fell out of favour with manager Fabio Capello because of injury and weight issues and the arrival of Ruud Van Nistelrooy.
In 2007, Ronaldo joined Milan for €7.5 million. There was some delay because Madrid refused to release him, but the Brazilian soon joined the Italian club. After spending a lot of time with the biggest clubs in Europe, Ronaldo failed to win the Champions League. Milan won the European Cup in the 2006-2007 season, but Ronaldo was cup-tied and was ineligible to take part. He suffered another injury in a league match, after which his contract was not renewed. Finally, he joined Corinthians which signalled an end of an illustrious career.
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