Ronaldo

(Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima, Rio de Janeiro, 1976) Brazilian football player. Endowed
with exceptional qualities, with the ball in his boots is unpredictable, unsuspected,
magical, devastating and accurate. Despite his young age, his 1.83 m height and his 75
kg weight have made him a great star; Is the "crack" of world football and the successor
to the great stars of the eighties.
Of humble family, Ronaldo's mother, divorced, worked fourteen hours a day in pizzerias
or supermarkets to carry out their three children. They lived in the suburb of Benito
Ribeiro, forgotten and distant like so many suburbs of the north of Rio de Janeiro, whose
inhabitants do not know the paradisiacal south zone of the city, with its beaches, its
luxurious cars and its rich people. Ronaldo did not know that part of his own city either,
but he did not know that he would soon have the opportunity to even live in it.
At 14, Ronaldo was about to play for Flamengo, but he did not have enough money to
afford the four bus tickets needed to get from his home to the club. He started playing in
Sao Cristovao, which two years later transferred to Cruzeiro de Minas Gerais, and at 16
years his life took a turn. In that club it revaloriz quickly and all the equipment bid for
him. It was led by PSV Holland, where he played the seasons from 94 to 96. This last
year was chosen by the FIFA best player in the world.
In 1996, Ronaldo signed a contract with the F.C. Barcelona for 8 years, and the Catalan
club paid the PSV 20 million dollars. The player received a total of 2,000 million pesetas,
250 million gross per season, with a termination clause of 4,000 million. The transfer of
Ronaldo was the most expensive in Spanish football: the final operation amounted to 4.5
billion pesetas. In this club gained worldwide fame with its performances, reason why
the Barcelona extended to him ten years the duration of the contract and established in
77 million dollars the price of its clause of freedom. On January 20, 1997, he was again
recognized as the best footballer in the world, in accordance with the FIFA-sponsored
nomination, and in the same year he collected the "Golden Ball" awarded by France
Football magazine.
In the summer months of 1997, even before the end of the football season, Ronaldo left
Barcelona with the intention of signing for an Italian team that turned out to be Inter Milan.
The Italian club paid, in addition to the 4,000 million of the termination clause, a
supplementary amount of compensation to Barcelona for his pass. He has been
international for his country, Brazil, on more than a dozen occasions, and with his
selection was World Champion in 1994 and 2002.
But in the following years the injuries would accompany him. Barely played at Inter Milan
and all remember that kind of unexplained seizure that suffered hours before the final
against France in the 1998 World Cup.
Since November 1999 Ronaldo has remained practically absent from the playing fields.
He had a fateful and brief appearance on April 12, 2000, in the final of the Italian Cup
between Lazio and Inter Milan. In a frantic race with which he tried to overcome his rival,
Portuguese Couto, he collapsed. No one touched him or made a bad entry, but Ronaldo
was seriously injured; The tendons in his right knee ruptured.
Since then, the king of football during his golden age, praised even by the mythical Pele,
with an income of 16 million dollars a year (about 3,000 million pesetas), had to leave
the football fields and started an activity In other environments: the world of arts and
culture, where everyone is invited and welcomed with affection, but where Ronaldo
seems to be uncomfortable and out of place.
Dedicated more than six hours to do physiotherapy with his knee, numerous exercises
at home and swimming, his dream was to return to the field of play. His highly anticipated
comeback came on August 19, 2001 and he completed a brilliant performance in a
friendly match in which his team, Inter Milan, easily thrashed the Nigerian champion.
Ronaldo played 35 minutes, scored a goal and left the field with a close ovation.
Before the end of the year he suffered muscular problems again and needed several
months of adaptation to play again. The doubts about his physical form and the
possibilities of his game were definitively cleared in World-wide of Korea and Japan 2002
where Ronaldo claimed its condition of star and returned of own merits to the top of the
soccer olimpo. He was the top scorer of the tournament, his only goal that qualified Brazil
against Turkey for the final and also left their boots the two goals with which the
Canarinha team eliminated the powerful Germany in the final match to achieve their fifth
World Cup.
The excellent performance of Ronaldo in the World Cup put the striker in the sights of
the best clubs in the world and, on the last day of August 2002, after weeks of arduous
negotiations between Inter Milan and Real Madrid, the merengue team Signed the
Brazilian player for 45 million euros. In the last days of the year, the Brazilian star
collected the two most prestigious awards in the world of football; The "Golden Ball" of
the French magazine France Football, and the FIFA prize for the best player on the
planet. Several months later, he also collected two Laureus awards as a member of the
Brazilian team and as best athlete of 2002.