Ronaldo Luis Nazario Lima one of the greatest footballer ever produced by Brazil finally announced his retirement in football last monday, February 14, 2011. At the age of 34 he had tremendous achievement for the world’s most popular sport. Series of injuries had taken toll into his awesome skills and prevented him from joining the World Cup in South Africa.
Ronaldo is one of youngest player who had won his World Cup title at the age of 17, as part of Brazil’s first world cup champion team in 1994. In 1998 France World Cup, Brazil had once again reached the finals but bowed down to France.
During the 2002 edition of the World Cup, Ronaldo had made history by scoring the two goals in Brazil’s 2-0 win against Germany. He made a total of 15 goals in his entire World Cup stint during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. One of the greatest achievement of his career.
Ronaldo have been named as Fifa World Player of the year for three times, 1996,1997 and 2002. He is popularly known to the Spanish speaking nationalities as “Il Fenomeno” meaning the Phenomenom. Ronaldo was one of the most-highly paid athlete. He had stint with Europe’s most notable football teams.
The retirement of Ronaldo to the game he loved most and made a remarkable career as one of the most recognized football player in history had left a void in Brazil’s football dominance, who is going to replace him the way he marketed football to the next level.
A tribute to Ronaldo
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgIPXTSKpoE[/youtube]