Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima (pronounced [xo'nawdʊ lu'iz na'zaɾjʊ dʒi 'limɐ]; born September 18, 1976 in Rio de Janeiro), generally referred to simply as Ronaldo, is a Brazilian professional footballer who since 2007 plays as a striker for the Italian Serie A club AC Milan.

Having begun his career at Brazilian side Cruzeiro, Ronaldo signed with PSV Eindhoven in 1994, and after that he had memorable tenures with FC Barcelona, Internazionale, and Real Madrid prior to joining Milan.

A member of the Brazilian national team, Ronaldo has played over 100 international matches, and was part of the Brazilian squads that won the 1994 and 2002 World Cups. He is the highest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup with 15 goals, having surpassed Gerd Müller's previous record of 14 at the 2006 tournament.

Ronaldo has won three FIFA World Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2002) and is one of two men to have won the award three times, along former Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane. Ronaldo has been nicknamed "The Phenomenon" (Portuguese: O Fenômeno, Spanish: El Fenómeno). Pelé named him one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. In 2007 France Football named him in their best starting 11 of all time.
Football career

Cruzeiro and Early career

Ronaldo was born in Bento Ribeiro, a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. Like many of his friends, he began to play football in the streets of his neighborhood. Ronaldo's actual date of birth is September 18, however, his father did not register his birth certificate until September 22,[citation needed] so some discrepancy has existed as to his actual birth date. His football 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.[citation needed]

Ronaldo scored 12 goals in 13 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.

PSV

After being scouted by Piet de Visser, he was soon transferred for US$6 million to PSV Eindhoven, where he scored 42 goals in 46 league games and reached a total of 55 goals in 57 official appearances.

Barcelona

Later he attracted the attention of FC Barcelona. He played for Barça in the 1996-97 season, scoring 47 in 49 (including appearances in the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners Cup) on the way to leading the Catalan side to UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph (where he capped the season with the winning goal in the cup final itself).

As of 2006, Ronaldo is the last player to score more than 30 goals in 1 season in the Spanish La Liga

Internazionale

Inter Milan swooped to sign him the following year, and Ronaldo duly helped them repeat his former side's cup-winning run, this time in the UEFA Cup. .

On 21 November 1999, during a Serie A match against Lecce, Ronaldo felt his knee buckle and was forced to limp off the pitch. Medical exams after the match confirmed that the striker had ruptured a tendon in his right knee and would require surgery. [1]During his first comeback on April 12, 2000, he played only seven minutes during the first leg of the Coppa Italia final against Lazio before injuring his knee for a second time.[2]

After two operations and 20 months of rehabilitation, Ronaldo came back for the 2002 World Cup, 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 million.
Real Madrid

Even though he 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 and the La Liga Championship title for 2003, which Ronaldo had previously failed to win while with Barcelona.
A.C. Milan

On 18 January 2007 it was reported that Ronaldo has agreed terms with A.C. Milan for a transfer of about €7.5 million.[3] Ronaldo was forced to pay for the remaining period on his contract which tied him to Real Madrid, only because the latter did not accept to release him, while A.C. Milan were not ready to pay such a sum. On Thursday, 25 January Ronaldo flew from Madrid to Milan to watch A.C. Milan in a cup tie against AS Roma. Statements on the club's website said that Ronaldo was in Milan for a medical, and that a meeting had been arranged for Monday with Real Madrid officials to discuss and finalize his transfer to Milan. On January 26 Ronaldo successfully completed his medical tests at the Milanello training complex under the supervision of club doctors, and the transfer completed on 30 January[4] and got the jersey number 99. He made his debut as a substitute for Milan on 11 February 2007, during the 2-1 victory over Livorno. The next game at Siena on 17 February 2007, Ronaldo scored twice and assisted on a third goal in his first start for Milan as they won an exciting game 4-3. In his first season at Milan, Ronaldo scored 7 goals in 14 appearances. [5]

After his move to A.C. Milan, Ronaldo joined the list of the few players to have played for both Inter Milan and A.C. Milan in the Milan derby and is the only player to have scored for both sides in the derby game (for Inter in the 98/99 season and for Milan in the 06/07 season). Ronaldo is also one of the few players to have started for Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, which also boasts a heated rivalry. However, Ronaldo has never transferred directly between the teams in the derby. Ronaldo has only played 300-plus minutes for Milan this season and before a Champions League game against Benfica he pulled a calf muscle while warming up. This has put negotiations of signing a new contract under threat as the Milan coaching and general staff are becoming frustrated with his fitness, which his current one run until June 2008. Ronaldo's only goals in the 2007/2008 season, besides his goal against Lecce in pre-season, came in a 5-2 victory against Napoli at the San Siro, where he scored an emotional brace. It was also the first time Milan's much hyped attacking trio of Kaka, Pato and Ronaldo, known as Ka-Pa-Ro played together. Despite his tremendous success over the past decade, Ronaldo never won the UEFA Champions League in his club career. During the 2006-07 season, though Milan won the 2006-07 title, Ronaldo was cup-tied with Madrid and ineligible to take part. The closest that he has even been was in 2003 when he helped Real Madrid to the semi-finals, in which they lost to Juventus F.C..

On February 13, 2008, Ronaldo suffered a severe season-ending knee injury while jumping for a cross in Milan's 1-1 draw with A.S. Livorno Calcio, and was stretchered off and taken to a hospital. Milan confirmed after the match that Ronaldo had ruptured the kneecap ligament in his left knee. It marked the third such occurrence of this injury, which he suffered twice to his right knee in 1998 and 2000. [6]

Over a month after his season-ending knee injury with AC Milan, the three-time FIFA World Player of the year ruled out the possibility of retirement and told calciomercato.it that he is certain he will play again. [7]

International career

Ronaldo made his international debut for Brazil in 1994, in a friendly match in Recife against Argentina. He went to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the USA as a 17-year-old but did not play. He came to be known then as Ronaldinho, since Ronaldo Rodrigues de Jesus, his older team-mate on the tournament, was too called Ronaldo (and nicknamed Ronaldão to further distinguish them). Another Brazilian player, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, who is widely known as Ronaldinho, would come to be called Ronaldinho Gaúcho when he joined the Brazilian main national team in 1999.

In the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ronaldo played with the name Ronaldinho ("little Ronaldo") on his shirt, since centre back Ronaldo Guiaro, two years his senior, was one of his teammates.

Voted the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and 1997, he scored four goals and made three assists[8] during the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The night before the final, he suffered a convulsive fit. He was initially removed from the starting lineup 72 minutes before the match but he requested to play and was later reinstated by coach Mario Zagallo. Ronaldo did not perform well and he was injured in a collision with French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. Brazil lost the final to hosts France 3-0.[9] 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."[10]

Ronaldo won the Golden Shoe as the top scorer in the 2002 FIFA World Cup with eight goals. He scored against every team he came up against except England in the quarter finals and scored two in the final against Germany, helping Brazil win their fifth World Cup title. 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, winning all the penalties himself.

In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, although Brazil won their first two group games against Croatia and Australia, respectively, Ronaldo was repeatedly jeered for being overweight and slow (Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva questioned the national coach "Ronaldo is fat or isn't he?"). Nonetheless, coach 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, 2002 and 2006 World Cups. 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. However, Brazil was eliminated by France 1-0 in the quarter-finals.

The fallout after Brazil's disappointing performance in the World Cup saw Brazil appoint former captain Dunga as manager. His attempt to end the star culture of the Brazilian national team saw him drop Ronaldo not only from the starting line-up but from the squad altogether. He hasn't been selected since. He is eleven goals away from becoming Brazil's all-time top-scorer.

Ronaldo is currently the fourth highest all-time goalscorer of the Brazil national football team, with 62 goals. He trails third place Zico, 66, second place Romario, 71, and first place Pelé, 77. [11]

Personal life

In April 1999, Ronaldo married female Brazilian footballer Milene Domingues after he saw her playing on television and proposed to her. The marriage lasted four years and ended in divorce. The couple had a son, Ronald (born 2000). Ronaldo revealed in an interview: "My wife and I eat a lot at McDonald's so we chose Ronald."[12] In 2005, Ronaldo got engaged to Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli, who became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage; their relationship lasted 3 months after their engagement. He ended his relationship with Brazilian supermodel Raica Oliveira in December 2006. 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.[13]

In 2005, Ronaldo became co-owner of A1 Team Brazil, alongside Brazilian motorsports legend Emerson Fittipaldi. The team participates in the A1 Grand Prix series, with Nelson Piquet, Jr., Tony Kanaan and João Paulo Oliveira as drivers for the debut season.

On April 29, 2008, it was alleged that Ronaldo, who had returned to Brazil to continue his injury rehabilitation, had employed the company of three transvestite prostitutes in a Rio de Janeiro motel.[14] Police told a news conference they were also looking into an accusation by the player that one of the three transvestites tried to extort 50,000 reais (around 25,000 US dollars) in return for not telling the media about the incident.

Philanthropy

Ronaldo became a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador in 2000. "No one should be doomed to a life of poverty, whether by birth or as a consequence of war", Ronaldo said.[15][16]

Ronaldo has also supported numerous Palestinian children's charities.[17]

Popular culture

Ronaldo appeared on The Simpsons in the episode "Marge Gamer", where Lisa and Homer were arguing that Lisa dived on purpose in a soccer game. Ronaldo, portrayed as traveling via backflips and intent on exposing floppers, came in and said that she did in fact dive. Upon her receiving a red card he proudly exclaimed "Another family broken up by Ronaldo! Yes!!!"
Honors and awards
Country
FIFA World Cup
All-Time World Cup Goalscorer - 15 Goals in 19 games in 3 World Cups
2006 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer (tied) - 3 goals and 1 assist
2002 Golden Boot - Top scorer - 8 goals
2002 Silver Ball - Second best player
2002 Winner
1998 Golden Ball - Best player
1998 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer - 4 goals 4 assists
1998 Runner-up
1994 Winner
Confederations Cup: 1997
Copa América: 1997, 1999
Olympic Games: 1996 (3rd Place)

Club
Cruzeiro
Brazilian Cup:1993
PSV Eindhoven
Dutch Cup: 1996
FC Barcelona
Cup Winners' Cup: 1997
Spanish Super Cup: 1996
Internazionale
UEFA Cup: 1998
Real Madrid
Intercontinental Cup: 2002
La Liga - Primera División champions: 2002/2003
Spanish Super Cup: 2003

Individual
FIFA World Player of the Year: 1996 (youngest winner), 1997, 2002
World Soccer Player of the Year: 1996 (youngest winner), 1997, 2002
European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d'Or): 1997 (youngest winner), 2002
Onze d'Or: 1997, 2002
IFFHS World's Top Goal Scorer of the Year:[clarify] 1997
UEFA Most Valuable Player - 1998
UEFA Club Football Awards: Best Forward - 1998
FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1998, 2002
European Golden Boot: 1997
Bravo Award: 1997, 1998
Copa América 1999: Top Scorer
Spanish League Top Scorer: 1996-1997, 2003-2004
 Dutch League Top Scorer: 1994-1995
Intercontinental Cup MVP: 2002
BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002
Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year: 2003
Golden Foot award: 2006
Champion of Champions award:2008

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