Ronaldo, also named “
Fenomeno”, has mesmerised the world with his extraordinary goals and scores. Paying a tribute to this living legend, #
Fame World is here with a fantastic video focusing on the life and tremendous success of the soccer star. The video also includes several comments and thoughts of Ronaldo's near and dear ones including Barbaba Vasconcelos, Ronaldo's former neighbour; Marcinho, Ronaldo's childhood friend;
Sepp Blatter,
Swiss football administrator serving as the eighth and current
President of FIFA;
Pelé, retired Brazilian professional footballer;
Dunga, former Brazilian footballer and the current head coach of
Brazil;
Zinedine Zidane, former
French footballer and current coach of
Real Madrid Castilla;
Ronaldinho, Brazilian footballer playing for
Mexican club
Querétaro;
Kaká, Brazilian professional footballer playing for
American club
Orlando City in
Major League Soccer as well as
Paulo José,
Brazilian television and film actor, director and narrator.
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, widely known as Ronaldo, was born on
18 September 1976 to Nélio
Nazário de
Lima, Snr. and Sônia dos
Santos Barata. The retired Brazilian footballer is popularly dubbed “the phenomenon” and regarded as the greatest football players of all time by football experts and fans. Along with other football greats like Zinedine Zidane,
Lionel Messi and
Cristiano Ronaldo, Ronaldo won the
FIFA World Player of the Year award three times or more. He also won the
Ballon d'Or twice in
1997 as well as in
2002. The striker has given the beautiful game and fans numerous record breaking goals and his incredible journey from a common kid to becoming the “phenomenon” will leave you bewildered.
It was in
1993 when Ronaldo started his career in football with
Cruzeiro. He was just 16 when he made his professional debut on 25 May 1993 against
Caldense in the
Minas Gerais State Championship. The soccer master also came to national public attention on
7 November 1993 after scoring five goals in the game against
Bahia. After the
1994 World Cup, Ronaldo decided to join
PSV on the advice of
Romário and won the
Dutch Cup in
1996. His legendary footballer was so good in his game since a tender age that Brazilian defender
Cafu said - “The first time I saw him play was at Cruzeiro. He was still a kid. It was in a game where he ended up scoring five goals. From that
point on he showed he was truly a phenomenon.”
Watching his electrifying performances and impressive abilities to score a goal, Ronaldo attracted the attention of both
Inter Milan and
FC Barcelona when the latter was willing to pay the then world record fee of $19.5 million to this fabulous player. With the club, Ronaldo made his most memorable goal at
SD Compostela on
October 11,
1996 when he evaded a cynical tackle of the first opponent with a drag back and running towards the goal past two more defenders in the box with close ball control and scoring the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
The day after the goal, the headline in the
Spanish newspaper AS read: '
Pele returns'.
After his career with
Barcelona, Ronaldo was signed by Inter Milan in 1997 for a then world record fee of $27 million. He started to develop into a complete forward, began racking up assists taking and scoring freekicks along with captaining the team at the end of the season. In 1997, he won the FIFA World Player of the Year for the second time as well as the Ballon d'Or. His club career further continued with
Real Madrid from 2002 to
2006 (€46 million),
AC Milan from
2007 to 2008 (€8.05 million) and
Corinthians from 2009 to
2011. Highly regarded for his technical ability and considered to be one of the most skillful individual dribblers in the game, Ronaldo made his international debut for Brazil in
1994. The legendary football star has been honoured with a host of other trophies for his tremendous success including
Supercopa Libertadores Top Scorer,
Campeonato Mineiro Team of The Year,
Eredivisie Top Scorer,
Pichichi Trophy,
European Golden Boot,
Don Balón Award La
Liga Foreign Player of the Year,
IFFHS World's Top
Goal Scorer of the Year, Onze d'Or,
UEFA Cup Final Most Valuable Player,
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality,
FIFA 100 and
Golden Foot award.
Ronaldo married
Milene Domingues, the female Brazilian footballer, at the time she was pregnant with the couple's first son,
Ronald. Earlier, the soccer star dated Brazilian model and actress
Susana Werner on the set of
Brazilian telenovela Malhação and the couple lived together in
Milan until the beginning of
1999.
- published: 24 Jun 2016
- views: 6