Ronaldo

Ronaldo was born September 22, 1976 in Bento Ribeiro, a neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Like many of his contemporaries, he began to play football in the streets of his neighbourhood.

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, he got engaged to Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniella Cicarelli, who became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage; their relationship lasted 3 months after their engagement. He is currently dating Brazilian supermodel Raica Oliveira. 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 [3]

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.[citation needed] Ronaldo scored 12 goals in 14 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. He was soon transferred for US$6 million to PSV Eindhoven and later attracted the attention of Spain's FC Barcelona. He played for Barça in the 1996-1997 season, scoring 34 goals in 37 appearances (47 in 49, including appearances in the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners Cup), then transferred to Inter Milan the following year.

A year after the 1998 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, in which he scored two goals against Germany in the final Ronaldo was the top scorer of the 2002 World Cup with eight goals, 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

Recently, in May 2006 Ronaldo and teammate Antonio Cassano were fined for every gram that they remained overweight. After the World Cup in Germany, there was speculation that Ronaldo would leave Real for A.C. Milan in a trade for Kaka Ronaldo had previously threatened to leave the club after repeated jeering from supporters about his weight and he was expected to face competition from new signing Ruud van Nistelrooy Milan later ended negotiations for Real. He has also been linked with a swap deal for Inter Milan's Adriano although no official bid has been made.[4]

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 was known then as Ronaldinho since Ronaldo Guiaro, his older team-mate on the 1996 Olympic Games, was called Ronaldo Another brazilian player Ronaldo de Assis, who is widely known as Ronaldinho was then called Ronaldinho Gaúcho until the Ronaldinho-to-Ronaldo change occurred for Ronaldo de Lima as he became more prominent.

Voted the FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996 and 1997, he scored four goals and made three assists[5] 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.[6] 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."[7]

Ronaldo won the Golden Shoe as the top scorer in the 2002 FIFA World Cup with eight goals, two in the final against Germany. He also equaled Pelé's Brazilian record of 12 World Cup goals, adding to the four he scored in the 1998 tournament.

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. During the game, he was booked for a handball when he and his teammates tried to deflect Zinedine Zidane's free kick. Though Ronaldo was criticized for his performance, much of the blame went towards teammate Ronaldinho who was partying after Brazil's defeat.

As of July 1, 2006, he had scored 62 goals in 97 international matches.[8]

Following the 2006 World Cup Ronaldo had surgery on July 16, 2006, to remove calcifications from his left tibia.[9]