Ronaldo

Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima (born September 22, 1976), is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Brazil and the Italian Serie A club AC Milan. He has been nicknamed "The Phenomenon" (Portuguese: O Fenômeno, Spanish: El Fenómeno). Pelé named him one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Ronaldo has enjoyed success at the international level, winning the 1994 and 2002 FIFA World Cups with Brazil. Ronaldo has won three FIFA World Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2002). He and former Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane are the only two men to have won the award three times.

Personal life

Ronaldo was born in Bento Ribeiro, a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 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, 1976, however, his father did not register his birth certificate until September 22, 1976 so some discrepancy has existed as to his actual birth date.

In April 1999, Ronaldo married Milene Domingues. The marriage lasted four years and ended in divorce. The couple had a son, Ronald (born 2000). 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.

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.

Football career

Ronaldo's 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.

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. 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. Later he attracted the attention of Spain's 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). 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. As of 2006, Ronaldo is the last player to score more than 30 goals in 1 season in the Spanish La Liga.

A year after the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he severely injured his right knee and was out of the game for several months. During his first comeback in 2000, he played only seven minutes during a league game against Lazio before injuring his knee for a second time.

After two operations and 20 months of rehabilitation, Ronaldo came back for the 2002 FIFA 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 €39,000,000, after frequent disputes with Inter coach Héctor Cúper. His transfer to Madrid was the subject of a media frenzy not just laced with the usual hype because of his reputation, but more so because he was now the third successive Galactico (or superstar) signed in as many years by the Spanish giants as part of their policy of signing the world's biggest superstar football players in order to maintain their levels of success whilst broadening their reaches of fame.

Ronaldo was such a well-known signing that sales of his shirt on the day of his signing alone broke all records the world over. Proof of his fame came with the fact that even though Ronaldo 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 (not including the goals in the UEFA Champions League that included a hat-trick away at Manchester United - in which Real Madrid still lost 4-3 away but proceeded 6-5 on aggregate.) and the La Liga Championship title for 2003, which Ronaldo had previously failed to win whilst at FC Barcelona.

On 18 January 2007 it was reported that Ronaldo has agreed terms with A.C. Milan for a transfer of about $7.8 million. 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 clubs 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 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.

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.

Despite his tremendous success over the past decade, Ronaldo has yet to win the UEFA Champions League in his club career which now looks to be on its final stretch. 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, where they lost to Juventus F.C..

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.

Voted the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and 1997, he scored four goals and made three assists 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. 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."

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 FIFA 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.

As of July 1, 2006, he had scored 62 goals in 97 international matches.

Following the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo had surgery on July 16, 2006, to remove calcifications from his left tibia.

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.

Ronaldo has also supported numerous Israeli and Palestinian children's charities and conducted a tour of Israel and the West Bank.

Trivia

* 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.

Honors and awards

Country

* FIFA World Cup
o All-Time World Cup Goalscorer - 15 Goals in 19 games in 3 World Cups
o 2006 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer (tied) - 3 goals and 1 assist
o 2002 Golden Boot - Top scorer - 8 goals
o 2002 Silver Ball - Second best player
o 2002 Winner
o 1998 Golden Ball - Best player
o 1998 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer - 4 goals 4 assists
o 1998 Runner-up
o 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
* UEFA Most Valuable Player - 1998
* UEFA Club Football Awards: Best Forward - 1998
* FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1998, 2002
* European Golden Boot: 1997
* Copa América 1999: Top Scorer
* Spanish League Top Scorer: 1996-1997, 2003-2004
* Flag of the Netherlands Dutch League Top Scorer: 1994-1995
* Intercontinental Cup MVP: 2002
* BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002
* GoldenFoot Award: 2006

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!!!"