Club career
Cruzeiro
"The first time I saw him play was at Cruzeiro. He was still a kid. It was in a game where he ended up scoring five goals. From that point on he showed he was truly a phenomenon."
—Brazilian defender Cafu on 17-year-old Ronaldo.[13]
In 1993, Ronaldo began his football career playing for Cruzeiro.[14] Aged 16, he made his professional debut on 25 May 1993 against Caldense in the Minas Gerais State Championship.[14] Ronaldo came to national public attention on 7 November 1993, scoring five goals in the game against Bahia.[15]
Ronaldo scored 44 goals in 47 games with Cruzeiro, leading them to their first Copa do Brasil in 1993, and the Minas Gerais State Championship in 1994.[16] Before joining Cruzeiro, he was turned down by Flamengo, the team he supported as a boy, after missing practice due to an inability to afford the fare for the hour-long bus ride, but Jairzinho saw Ronaldo's potential and helped get him the move to Cruzeiro.[7][17]
PSV Eindhoven
Ronaldo chose to join PSV after the 1994 World Cup. He was selected for the tournament despite being just 17, but did not play in any games. It was Romário who advised Ronaldo to move to PSV; Romário having played for PSV from 1988 to 1993.[18] Ronaldo scored 30 league goals in his first season in the Netherlands.[19] After scoring a hat-trick in PSV's game against Bayer Leverkusen in the 1994–95 UEFA Cup, Leverkusen striker and Germany World Cup winner Rudi Völler stated in a post match press conference, "Never in my life have I seen an 18-year-old play in this way."[18] His dribbles from midfield caught the attention of many in the sport, with future Barcelona teammate Luis Enrique stating, "I'd seen him on television at PSV and thought ‘wow'. Then he came to Barcelona. He's the most spectacular player I've ever seen. He did things I'd never seen before. We're now used to seeing Messi dribble past six players, but not then. Ronaldo was a beast."[20]
Nick Miller, match reporter for The Guardian, writes, "What's striking about Ronaldo in that first year at PSV is how complete he looks, even as a skinny teenager. Everything that would come to define him – the lightning pace, the blurry stepovers, the implausible impression that he was faster with the ball than without it, even the exceptional upper-body strength – was all there."[18] Rob Smyth added, "In many ways Ronaldo was the first PlayStation footballer. His stepover was a form of hypnosis, and his signature trick, the elastico, could certainly have come from a computer screen."[21] Ronaldo's second season was marred by a knee injury which kept him out of most of the campaign, but he still averaged nearly a goal a game, scoring 19 goals in 21 appearances.[18] With PSV, Ronaldo won the Dutch Cup in 1996 and he was Eredivisie top scorer in 1995.[19] During his two seasons at the club he scored 54 goals in 58 games.[22]
Barcelona
Ronaldo scoring the winning penalty for Barcelona in the 1997 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final against Paris Saint-Germain
During his spell at PSV, Ronaldo attracted the attention of both Inter Milan and FC Barcelona. It was Barcelona that was willing to pay the then world record fee of $19.5 million.[22] During the 1996–97 season, Ronaldo scored 47 goals in 49 games in all competitions, with his goal celebration invariably the same with his arms outstretched like the statue of Christ the Redeemer that watches over his native Rio de Janeiro.[22] He led the Catalan side to UEFA Cup Winners' Cup triumph where he capped the season with the winning goal in the cup final, and to Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España wins.[23] He also won La Liga top scorer award in 1997 with 34 goals in 37 games, and the European Golden Shoe.[24] Until the 2008–09 season, Ronaldo remained the last player to score more than 30 goals in La Liga.[24]
Ronaldo was at his physical peak at Barcelona, and many of his 47 goals involved him rounding the goalkeeper before slotting the ball into the net.[22] Óscar García, Ronaldo's teammate that season, stated, "Back then, he was all fibre and muscle. He was a perfect physical specimen. Such incredible power matched to his technical skills could make him unstoppable."[25] Atletico Madrid's Quinton Fortune, who played against Ronaldo three times that season – Ronaldo scored eight goals – including having to mark him once, stated, "I saw him after the match finished, and that's the nearest I was to Ronaldo on the night. As a kid, I wanted to be Pelé. I bought all the books, all the videos and I studied what it could be like to be the best. I set off on that path. Then I met Ronaldo. Some players were technical, some were quick, some were strong, some were smart...Ronaldo was all of those. He was a beast; it was unfair to everyone else."[25] José Mourinho, who worked as an interpreter at Barcelona, referred to Ronaldo as "the greatest player I have ever seen in my life", adding, "I have no doubts. Ronaldo is the best my eyes have seen",[26] and in 2014 regarded him as the best player post-Diego Maradona.[27]
"He was physical perfection, and he seemed like a mythical figure. I love [Lionel] Messi, I played many times with Cristiano [Ronaldo] and I adore him, Neymar is outstanding, Ronaldinho was exceptional—but if you put all of them together, you might get what Ronaldo was that season."
—Quinton Fortune remembers playing against Ronaldo in the 1996–97 season.[25]
Arguably Ronaldo's most memorable Barcelona goal was scored at SD Compostela on 11 October 1996.[22] Having received the ball inside his own half, he evaded a cynical tackle of the first opponent with a drag back, before running away from another and ran towards goal where he went past two more defenders in the box with close ball control, and then slotted the ball into the bottom corner of the net.[22] The camera then cut to Barcelona manager Bobby Robson who had got up off the bench and clasped his head in disbelief at what he had seen.[22] The footage of the goal was later used in a Nike advert with a voiceover asking: "Imagine you asked God to be the best player in the world, and he listened to you".[22] The day after the goal, the headline in the Spanish newspaper AS read: 'Pelé returns'.[22] A hat-trick against Valencia, the third goal of which saw him dissect two Valencia defenders before striking the ball into the net, saw Barcelona fans waving white handkerchiefs as an expression of admiration for an exceptional performance.[28] Such was the manner Ronaldo ran through opposing defences, former Real Madrid forward Jorge Valdano commented; "he's not a man, he's a herd".[21] Sid Lowe of Sports Illustrated states, "That season Ronaldo was unstoppable. He was slim and powerful, skillful, fast and deadly. He was ridiculously good."[29] At the end of 1996, aged 20, Ronaldo became the youngest player to win FIFA World Player of the Year.[22]
Inter Milan
1997–99: World record transfer and Ballon d'Or win
Ronaldo at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
Ronaldo's time at Barcelona lasted one season, as there were problems with the renegotiation of his contract.[22] Barcelona thought the talking was over having agreed a new long term contract with the best player in the world until 2006, as Barcelona president Josep Lluís Núñez declared; "He's ours for life".[22] However, when the parties reconvened to finalise the deal the following day, the agreement collapsed, with Núñez admitting: "It's all over, Ronaldo is going".[22] Speaking to ESPN, Ronaldo stated, "The experience [at Barcelona] was wonderful and I had reached an agreement to renew my contract just a month before that season finished, but a week later the lawyer and the president of Barcelona agreed that that contract was absurd."[30] Paying the buy out clause fee in his contract, Inter Milan signed him in the summer of 1997 for a then world record fee of $27 million, making him the second player, after Diego Maradona, to break the world transfer record twice.[21][22]
Ronaldo adapted to the Italian style of the game in his first season, finishing with 25 Serie A goals, and was named Serie A Footballer of the Year.[31] Ronaldo started to develop into a complete forward. He began racking up assists, became first-choice penalty taker, taking and scoring freekicks. Halfway through his first season he won FIFA World Player of the Year for the second time, and collected the Ballon d'Or.[32] During his time with Inter, he scored several goals against city rivals A.C. Milan in the Derby della Madonnina. Ronaldo and prolific Fiorentina striker Gabriel Batistuta were the two best strikers in Serie A, with their duels the most anticipated in Italy.[33] Ronaldo's goal celebrations often saw his Inter teammates congratulating him by kneeling down and pretending to shine his shoe.[34] Ronaldo scored a trademark goal against Lazio in the 1998 UEFA Cup Final. Running through defence to go one on one with Lazio goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani, Ronaldo feinted to go right then left, without touching the ball, leaving Marchegiani on his backside, before going right and slotting the ball into the net.[35] His Inter teammate Youri Djorkaeff stated; "Ronaldo was phenomenal. He proved that he was a cut above the rest that season."[35] After the 1998 FIFA World Cup, where he was named player of the tournament, Ronaldo was widely regarded as the best striker in the world.[21][36] By the end of the 1998–1999 season, he was appointed Inter Milan captain.[37]
1999–2002: Recurring injury problems
"The knee injuries suffered at Inter Milan took away the explosiveness that made him possibly the greatest young footballer of all time, a futuristic fusion of speed, strength and skill. That is not to belittle Ronaldo’s achievements in the second half of his career, when he scored eight goals in a single World Cup [in 2002] and became the first Ronaldo to receive a standing ovation at Old Trafford [in 2003], but it is the memory of the early years that puts mist in the eyes of grown men."
—Rob Smyth, The Guardian.[21]
After two seasons with Inter, A. C. Milan defender Paolo Maldini viewed Ronaldo and Diego Maradona as the two best players he ever faced, stating, "Ronaldo during his first two years at Inter was a phenomenon."[38] Inter had high hopes going into the 1999–2000 season with their attack including Ronaldo and Italian stars Roberto Baggio and Christian Vieri.[39] However, on 21 November 1999, during a Serie A match against Lecce, Ronaldo felt his knee buckle and was forced to limp off the field.[40] A medical examination confirmed that the striker had ruptured a tendon in his knee and would require surgery.[40] During his first comeback on 12 April 2000, he played only six minutes during the first leg of the Coppa Italia final against Lazio before suffering a complete rupture of the knee-cap tendons.[41][42][43] As Ronaldo fell to the ground clutching his knee, Lazio players including Diego Simeone ran over to help him, and fans of both teams applauded him as he was stretchered off the field.[44] Ronaldo's physiotherapist Nilton Petrone stated, "his knee-cap actually exploded", and called it "the worst football injury" he's ever seen.[45]
Ronaldo was forced to miss the entire 2000–01 season and much of the two seasons either side of it.[46] Since his Inter teammate Javier Zanetti had replaced him as the team captain during his absence, he eventually inherited the captain's armband in late 2001.[47] After two operations and rehabilitation, Ronaldo came back for the 2002 World Cup, helping Brazil win their fifth World Cup title. Later in 2002, he won the FIFA World Player of the Year award for the third time, and transferred from Inter to Real Madrid.[32] Ronaldo was given his most recognizable nickname, Il Fenomeno, by the Italian press while playing there.[7][21] His Inter teammate Djorkaeff stated, "when we were training, we would practically stop to watch him. It was extraordinary."[48] Prior to his November 1999 injury Ronaldo had registered 42 goals in 58 Serie A games, in what was the hardest league to score in with the most advanced defensive strategies and the world's best defenders.[49][50] After five years he had played 99 games and scored 59 goals for Nerazzurri.[32] Ronaldo's performances at the club – especially the first two seasons before injury – saw him named among the four inaugural inductees into the Inter Milan Hall of Fame in 2018.[51][52]