ESPN FC is counting down the 20 greatest World Cup players of all time, with two unveiled per day until the final five. The identity of the No. 1 player will be announced on April 18.
Name: Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima
Nationality: Brazil
Position: Striker
Clubs: Cruzeiro (1993-94), PSV Eindhoven (1994-1996), Barcelona (1996-97), Inter Milan (1997-2002), Real Madrid (2002-07), AC Milan (2007-08), Corinthians (2009-11)
International career: 98 matches, 62 goals
World Cup participation: 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 -- played 19, scored 15
Finest World Cup moment: Scoring two goals in the 2002 final
Roll of honour: Winner 1994 and 2002, runner-up 1998
June 30, 2002: The sight of Ronaldo celebrating in Yokohama was heartwarming. Four years of pain were over; Brazil’s fifth title had made up for 1998’s shattering defeat.
Twice a World Cup winner, and once a losing finalist, Ronaldo completed his tournament career as the highest goal scorer in the tournament’s history: on 15 strikes. And at both France ‘98 and the 2002 finals shared between Japan and Korea, his exploits dominated the narrative.
When Brazil won the 1994 title, Ronaldo was an unused squad member, a 17-year-old learning the ropes from established strikers Romario and Bebeto. “He was very shy,” ESPN Brasil’s Paulo Vinicius Coelho told ESPN FC. “Well, except when the subject was girls.”
Ahead of France ‘98, there was little doubt about who the star would be. Ronaldo was “O Fenomeno” (the Phenomenon), a face starring in TV adverts and emblazoned across billboards. At 21, he was a striker of limitless potential, with solo runs through the middle of defences a specialty. A single season, 1996-97, at Barcelona saw him smash records -- until the coming of Lionel Messi, he was the last player to score more than 30 goals in La Liga. And a transfer to Inter Milan in the summer of 1997 had made him the most valuable commodity in football at $27 million.
“Brazilians saw him as the best player in the world,” Coelho said. “Ronaldo was the guy. We used to see the matches in La Liga, and the amazing goals he scored. We thought Ronaldo could be the best player in the World Cup, but he was 21 years old. That was a problem: his age.”
Brazil were a defective unit in the 1998 event. A 2-1 first-round defeat to Norway was an indicator of their susceptibility. There was an over-reliance on Ronaldo -- and partner Rivaldo -- to bail out a suspect defence and malfunctioning midfield as they beat Morocco and Scotland to advance. Brazil cruised past Chile (4-1) thanks to Ronaldo’s double but Denmark were only just squeezed past in the quarterfinals (3-2) with the other half of the partnership bagging a brace. Then penalties were required to beat Holland in the semis; Ronaldo had opened the scoring with a typical strike before nerves set in.
In Paris’ final, Ronaldo was present, but only in body. Reporters in the stadium were amazed to receive a team sheet on which Edmundo replaced him, and then even more mystified when he was restored on the reprint. The truth escaped slowly, and eventually via an investigation in Brazil’s national congress: On the morning of the final, he had suffered a seizure -- still unexplained to this day -- at the Brazilian team hotel.
Ronaldo did not travel on the team bus to the Stade de France. Instead, he arrived via a medical centre, only 40 minutes before kickoff, declaring himself fit to play. "Imagine if I stopped him playing and Brazil lost. At that moment I'd have to go and live on the North Pole," coach Mario Zagallo told the congress hearing.
In any case, Brazil capitulated 3-0 to the hosts, with Zinedine Zidane, an unlikely aerial threat, notching two headers, and Emmanuel Petit scoring late on. Ronaldo was little but a lumbering presence, though he was hardly alone in that: Rivaldo, with no such excuses, played equally poorly.
Franck Lebouef was the Frenchman detailed with marking Ronaldo, and feels reports of the great man’s demise were greatly exaggerated. “That was the first time and the last time I played against him,” he told ESPN FC. “He was simply fantastic. Many people said he was tired, he had epilepsy, but when I saw him running during the World Cup final, I knew I had to be at the max.”
Coelho supplies other explanations for the defeat: “In the mixed zone in Paris, [Brazil captain] Dunga said afterwards: ‘Brazil were good enough to be the second team and not the champions.’ And I agree. The team had problems. It was not a championship team. Ronaldo at 25 might have changed it, but it was not a good enough team.”
Four years later in Korea/Japan, Ronaldo was 25, but had missed almost three seasons with successive knee ruptures. The slaloming runs were now a thing of the past, but the striker’s scoring touch was not. “He recovered his confidence game by game,” Coelho said. Navigating an easy group of Turkey, Costa Rica and China, then Belgium in the last 16, Ronaldo scored in each game until the quarterfinal with England. Then, after Rivaldo and Ronaldinho did the damage there, supplied the sole goal of the semifinal with Turkey, with an improvised finish with the outside of his right boot.
In the final with Germany, he came up against the tournament’s other great star, goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, winning the duel hands down, scoring his seventh and eighth goals of the tournament -- making him the first man to do so since Gerd Muller’s 10 at the 1970 finals. The sight of an exultant Ronaldo lifting the title made up for the sad image he had presented at the final whistle at the Stade de France.
“After that World Cup, there was a doubt whether Rivaldo was the best player and Ronaldo was just the scorer,” Coelho said. “In my opinion, though, Ronaldo was the best. He was the difference. He scored the last three goals.”
In 2006, he returned to the finals to break Muller’s record, though did so amid the disappointment of Brazil, the heavy favourites, flopping badly as they exited in the quarterfinals to the revitalised French. “I think 2006 was the team that Brazil wasted. Since 1970, we never had a generation as brilliant as that one,” Coelho said. “The players were not so professional, Ronaldo included.”
With a second-round goal against Ghana, Ronaldo, bulky at well over 100 kilos, broke Muller’s record, but at 29, the adventures ended damply. “He thought it was enough to break the record of goals, he was not hungry for football, only for his own record,” Coelho said.
Nevertheless, Ronaldo remains one of the most loved of all Brazilians. “Ronaldo is charisma," Coelho said. “It's possible to say that Ronaldo took the inheritance of [Formula One legend] Ayrton Senna. Senna died [in 1994] and Ronaldo replaced him, one idol for another.”