Ronaldo
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- In full:
- Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima
- Nickname:
- Il Fenomeno
- Born:
- September 18 or 22, 1976, Itaguai, Brazil (age 47)
- Awards And Honors:
- World Cup (2002)
Ronaldo (born September 18 or 22, 1976, Itaguai, Brazil) is a retired football (soccer) player who led Brazil to a World Cup title in 2002 and who won three Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, and 2002) from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA).
Birth date
According to a FIFA tribute published in 2024:
Ronaldo was born in Itaguai, Rio de Janeiro on 18 September 1976, but his birth certificate was only issued four days later when his parents had scraped together enough money to pay for it. “The doctor delivered me for free because my parents couldn’t afford the birth,” Ronaldo explained. “Eventually, my father gathered three kilos of shrimp from the beach and gave it to the doctor as thanks. They also gave me the doctor’s name.”
The discrepancy between the date on Ronaldo’s birth certificate (September 22) and the date on which he says he was born (September 18)—the latter date supported by Ronaldo: The Journey of a Genius (2005), an enthusiastic biography by James Mosley, who claimed direct access to people around Ronaldo—has resulted in both dates being celebrated as his birthday on social media and elsewhere online by people, clubs, and organizations. Ronaldo himself has sent mixed signals. Among his former European clubs, three (FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, and Real Madrid) contend that he was born on September 22, 1976, while one (AC Milan) claims September 21.
Early life and career in Brazil
Ronaldo grew up in the poor Rio de Janeiro suburb of Bento Ribeiro. He began playing football as a junior for the neighborhood Social Ramos Club at age 12 and two years later joined São Cristóvão in the Carioca League. By 1992 he was playing in the Brazilian championship for Cruzeiro.
Ronaldo was a member of Brazil’s under-17 South American championship team in 1991 before joining the national side in 1994.
European club play: PSV Eindhoven, FC Barcelona, and Inter Milan
Ronaldo was transferred in 1994 from Cruzeiro to PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands, where he scored 55 goals in 56 games and won the 1995 league championship and the 1996 Dutch Cup.
After switching to FC Barcelona of Spain for the 1996–97 season, he scored 34 goals in 37 appearances and helped his team capture the Spanish Super Cup.
Because of his success in Spain, Ronaldo was paid $27 million by Inter Milan to play for the Italian club in 1997, a record at the time. At Inter his excellent dribbling skills and knack for scoring goals earned him the nickname “Il Fenomeno.”
In 1997 Ronaldo became the first player to win FIFA’s Player of the Year award two years in a row. In 1999, however, he suffered a serious knee injury that left him unable to play for almost two years.
A World Cup title and a move to Real Madrid
Dismissing concerns that his career was over, Ronaldo returned to competitive play in 2001. At the 2002 World Cup he was the tournament’s top scorer, with eight goals, and helped Brazil win its fifth World Cup championship.
He then announced that he was leaving Inter for Real Madrid of Spain. After much wrangling, Real agreed to pay a transfer fee of about $46.3 million. In 2002 Ronaldo was named both FIFA Player of the Year and European Footballer of the Year (an award he also had received in 1997).
At the 2006 World Cup he scored three goals to bring his career total at the tournament to a record-setting 15 (a mark that was broken in 2014 by Germany’s Miroslav Klose).
Injuries and retirement
While playing for the Italian powerhouse AC Milan in 2008, Ronaldo ruptured a tendon in his left knee—the same type of injury that had occurred in his right knee in 1999—which some thought would put his career in jeopardy.
In December 2008 a fully recovered Ronaldo signed with Corinthians in São Paulo. However, he continued to be plagued by a number of other, less significant, leg injuries during his tenure with Corinthians as well as by a thyroid condition that caused him to gain weight, and he abruptly retired from the sport in February 2011.
In 2018 Ronaldo became the majority owner of the Spanish club Real Valladolid, and in 2021 he purchased a stake in Cruzeiro, where he had played early in his career. In 2024 he said that he would sell his holdings in both clubs.