Ronaldo: The Ultimate Number 9

This week saw Brazilian legend Ronaldo call time on his professional career.

And what a career he has had.

In 97 matches for his country, Ronaldo scored 62 goals including 15 in the World Cup, which is the most any player has ever scored in the history of the tournament.

Despite his more recent problems with his health and weight, Ronaldo’s strike rate for all his clubs is just as impressive as his international record.

His first club in Europe was PSV Eindhoven and in the two years he was playing in the Dutch League Ronaldo scored 42 goals in 43 games.

Unsurprisingly, arguably Europe’s biggest club Barcelona came calling in the summer of 1996 and under Sir Bobby Robson Ronaldo again scored effectively a goal a game (47 in 49 matches).

At the age of 20, Ronaldo became the youngest player to win FIFA World Player of the Year in 1996. He won the award again in 1997 and 2002 after winning the World cup for the second time in his career, in which he scored both goals in Brazil’s 2-0 win over Germany.

This unbelievable strike rate characterizes Ronaldo’s entire career, as he went on to become an iconic figure at both Inter Milan and Real Madrid.

Indeed his move to Real Madrid is one of the most high profile transfers of all time as he not only became one of the very few players to play for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, he also became part of the ‘Galacticos’ by playing alongside Raul, Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and David Beckham.

At his peak Ronaldo was near enough unplayable. I have never seen a striker more clinical than the Brazilian when given half a chance to score.

Manchester United fans will never forget the hat-trick he scored at Old Trafford in the Champions League that knocked Sir Alex Ferguson’s team out of the tournament, but still led to Ronaldo getting a standing ovation when substituted towards the end of the game.

In total Ronaldo played 325 league games for seven different clubs scoring 247 goals in his 16-year professional career.

That equals a goal every 118 minutes he was on the pitch.

That strike rate is currently being matched by Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the last 12 months, but they will need to maintain it for many years to come if they want to be regarded as highly as Ronaldo.

However, it is Ronaldo’s success internationally as well as in club football that sets him apart from many top players and arguably makes him as good as anyone that has ever played the game.

I am lucky enough to have seen modern greats of the game like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs all play live.

My biggest footballing regret is that I never got to see Ronaldo – the ultimate number 9.

Images from BBC Sport website.