Soccer player Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima played for the national team of Brazil and some European football clubs. His professional career lasted nearly twenty years.
Ronaldo was born on the 18th of September, 1976, in Itagual in Brazil. His parents divorced when Ronaldo was eleven years old and soon afterwards he gave up school to start a soccer career. ("Ronaldo Biography")
Without a doubt, Ronaldo is one of the perfect players of all times. He is called the Phenomenon because of his incredible ability to score goals. He had his own unique attacking style but he also helped his team-mates owing to his vision, passing and crossing skills.
He greatly influenced the game of soccer being an example of the player who possessed different techniques and had his own style of playing.
He was able to play using his both feet. He was incredibly fast and player and he could play in several offensive positions although he preferred a part of a striker. Ronaldo was respected for his technical capacity for individual dribbling in the game.
In the 1990s, Ronaldo was considered as the new model of striker who would also act outside the penalty area before running with the ball to the goal. Ronaldo’s capability for beating several players when he underwent individual dribbling was extremely impressive. He was also great competent in twosome situations because of his ball control, high speed and acceleration, balance and professional skills. ("Ronaldo Biography")
In twosome situations, Ronaldo used thought out feints in order to trick and beat his rivals. The most memorable and popularized were the flip-flap (elastico) that is a method of cheating a defensive player when an offensive player who owns the ball is going to move in a direction the defense is not expected him to move in. It is performed by using the outward of the forward’s dominant foot to push the ball to the dominant side, then quickly move the dominant foot around the ball and uses its inner to push the ball to their non-dominants side. The next manner is called the step over (scissors) that is a feint in football when an offensive player is going to move in a direction he is not about to move in. A nutmeg (tunnel) is a technique when the player kicks the ball between his opponent’s feet in order to pass the ball to another player or score a goal. ("Soccer vocabulary, slang terms, jargon | Football language", 2016)
All these methods were invented long before Ronaldo but he developed them greatly by applying in different situations of a soccer match. This, his feints maneuvers are good examples for the newcomers.
Ronaldo respected by his colleagues. He was an abandoned child of divorced parents who firmly decided to devote his life to football and succeeded due to his persistence and hard work. Being a child of eleven years old, he started his way to the difficult world of soccer. Cafu remembers that when he saw Ronaldo the first time he was still a kid who was playing for Cruzeiro. In that game, he ended up scoring five goals and it was an evidence that he was a phenomenon. Shay Given evaluate Ronaldo as the best and almost unplayable because he could score any type of goals of nothing. Ray Parlour said that original Ronaldo remained one of the most clinical forwards he had ever seen and that he would go down as one of the best goal scorers of all times. Pele pointed that have been gone to Holland, Spain and Italy Ronaldo had improved the reputation of Brazilian football in all those three countries and when he came back he had breathed a new life into the Brazilian championship and Corinthians and Pele added that Brazilians should be grateful for what Ronaldo had done for their football. Zlatan Ibrahimovich considers Ronaldo as the best footballer ever and admits that no one has influenced both soccer and players as Ronaldo did. For Zlatan Ronaldo was a hero and a role model. He studied Ronaldo online and tried to copy all his movements. Ronaldo was his inspiration in achievement his target to be an awesome player. Together with Zlatan Ibragimovich Ronaldo influenced French soccer players Sergio Aguero and Karim Benzema. Ronaldo’s compatriot Kaka considers him as the best player he had played with. In Kaka’s opinion, the best players are those who are able to think of a play execute it quickest and in the best way possible. Kaka admires his speed and ability to feel the game. And agrees that Ronaldo was the phenomenon. Robert Pires a former half-back French footballer is sure that Ronaldo was one of the best attackers and the most spectacular player in the contemporary football. His velocity was impressive.
Not only Ronaldo’s colleagues but his opponents agreed that he is an excellent soccer. One of them is an Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon. He confessed that Ronaldo was his favorite and he had been fortunate to play against him many times. Gianluigi compared Ronaldo with an alien because of his ability to do what he could do on the pitch. He also regretted that Ronaldo had been badly injured and had to stop his career because of it. ("Quotes On: Ronaldo “Il Fenomeno” Luis Nazario De Lima")
Thus, Ronaldo recognized as the fastest and the most skillful player of the modern soccer and he is a good example of a hard work and professionalism for many generations of footballers.
Ronaldo is considered by the experts and football fans as one of the best players in the history of soccer. He is also the best player in the history of the world championships because he had the title of the world champion twice and once he was the vice-champion. Besides Ronaldo was the best player in 1998 and 2002 world championships and an ex-record-holder of scored goals, because in 2014 his record was beaten by Miroslaw Klose. He was a record-breaker of the amount of scored goals in all international matches and France Football magazine named Ronaldo as the greatest ever starting eleven. In 2004, he appeared in the FIFA 100 list of the best living players that was arranged by Pele. In 2006, he was included in the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame and the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2015. ("Ronaldo Biography")
Together with his soccer career, he participated in different events of social life. In 2000, he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador and together with Zinedine Zidane he played 11 international Matches Against Poverty and raised 4 million dollars to help poor people around the world. Suffering from numerous injuries that he got during his soccer career he decided to leave football. In 2013, he was named one of the six Ambassadors of the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. ("Match Against Poverty", 2015)
Ronaldo was one of the well-paid sportsmen in the world and after his retirement, he established his own business a sports marketing company 9NINE that is situated in the city San Paulo in Brazil. It has a global reach and gives the customers its support to use marketing sports opportunities in Rio Olympic Games 2016 that include branded events, PR, and other marketing and communicative activities. ("9ine Sports & Entertainment Company Profile - WPP", 2016)
Ronaldo is also a main shareholder in the North American Soccer League and four years later after his retirement he announced about his will to return to soccer with the American club Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Ronaldo bought a major stake in this club and promised to participate in its life and help the Strikers to turn into worldwide fame.
Nowadays Ronaldo is doing his best to lose weight and gain his perfect fit in order to continue his sports career. ("Ronaldo announces return to football with Fort Lauderdale Strikers", 2015)
Thus, Ronaldo Luis Nazario De Lima is a splendid example of a person who achieved his goals due to his own will and hard work. In spite of his injuries and traumas his football career lasted quite long and his devotion to soccer is a good role model for the young beginners and the point of admiration for his fans. His charity work should be admitted too. Ronaldo by right can be considered as the proud of Brazil and the legend of the history of soccer.
References
9ine Sports & Entertainment Company Profile - WPP. (2016). Wpp.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.wpp.com/wpp/companies/9ine-sports-entertainment/
Match Against Poverty. (2015). UNDP. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/goodwillambassadors/match_against_poverty/
Quotes on: Ronaldo “Il Fenomeno” Luis Nazario de Lima. (2015). Wet grass, white posts, bulging nets, and ignited passions. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from https://arjyomitra94.wordpress.com/2015/08/28/quotes-on-ronaldo-il-fenomeno-luis-nazario-de-lima/
Ronaldo announces return to football with Fort Lauderdale Strikers. (2015). Mail Online. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2967058/Ronaldo-announces-return
Ronaldo Biography. (2016). History-of-soccer.org. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.history-of-soccer.org/ronaldo-biography.html
Soccer vocabulary, slang terms, jargon | Football language letter B. (2016). Football-bible.com. Retrieved 28 March 2016, from http://www.football-bible.com/soccer-glossary/letterb.html
