Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, 34, popularly known in the football world as Ronaldo, the Phenom from Brazil, announced his retirement from football on February 14, 2011. He cited pain and hypothyroidism as the reason for his retirement. He last played for Corinthians in Brazil.
Some of Ronaldo’s career highlights are as follows:
- Record number of goals scored in FIFA World Cup with 15.
- Won FIFA World Players of the Year thrice (1996, 1997 and 2002)
- Won two World Cups (1994 and 2002) with Brazil
- Won Copa America twice with Brazil
- Won the European Footballer of the year twice (1997 and 2002)
- Netted more than 400 goals in his career with seven clubs having made his debut at Cruzeiro at 16.
- Won his first cap for Brazil as a 17-year-old and went on to score 62 goals in 97 international appearances.
- Played for 2 rival teams in two Domestics leagues: Barcelona (1996-1997) and Real Madrid (2002-2007); Inter (1997-2002) and AC Milan (2007-2008)
Career lows include:
- Suffered a mysterious illness in the 1998 World Cup while all eyes were on him to lead Brazil to another title. He played coming off from the bench and the team lost to a Zidane-led France 0-3 in the Final.
- He Had problems with his knees all throughout his career. He spent almost two years out of the game while recovering from surgery after his knee buckled in the Italian Cup final against Lazio in April 2000.
- In April 2008, Ronaldo was involved in a publicized scandal involving three transvestite prostitutes whom he met in a nightclub located in the city of Rio de Janeiro. He had mistaken them as females while wanting to have fun.
- His team Corinthians was eliminated from the Copa Libertadores in February 2011. Fans were often enraged by Ronaldo’s misses.
Ronaldo is one great footballer that we shall all miss.
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