Calcio Debate: How Will Ronaldo Be Remembered?
Following the heartbreaking injury of Ronaldo last night, it looks increasingly likely that we have now witnessed the end of one of the greatest players of all time. Carlo Garganese asks how El Fenomeno should be remembered…
Never has Goal.com been flooded with so many messages of support than what Ronaldo received following the news that he had ruptured the tendon in his left knee.
The kind-hearted posts and the sheer number of comments left, which went well into the hundreds and is still rising, in itself illustrates why Ronaldo will go down as one of the legends of the game.
Of course it is never nice to write off a player, especially a champion of the people such as Ronnie, and I more than anyone would love to see the great man return to grace Serie A and Champions League playing fields once again.
However all logic points to the likelihood that this will not happen. The truth is that the 31-year-old’s body is just too unstable and really everyone knows, despite the fact that Milan say they will stand by him, that this is the end.
So how will Ronaldo be remembered?
Well I don’t want to sit here and bore you with things that are already known, such as goal statistics, awards won and records held.
The truth is that Ronaldo will go down as one of, if not the best, forward of all time. He is up there with the likes of Eusebio, Marco van Basten, Roberto Baggio and is certainly not out of place when mentioned in the same breath as Pele, or even Maradona.
Unfortunately for Ronaldo, he perhaps lost his opportunity to prove that he was the greatest due to the series of horrific injuries he sustained during his career.
He lost the best part of three years in between 1999 and 2002 due to two ruptured tendons in his right knee, the same injury he picked up last night, only in the other leg.
Since 2002 he has been continually hounded by fitness and weight problems, and niggles, and one only has to look at the number of times he has featured for Milan since signing for them 13 months ago to realise how this has interfered with his football.
In total Ronaldo has probably lost half of his career to injuries, yet despite this he has still always been recognised as world class. In 2002, as mentioned above he had not played for the best part of three years, yet he still managed to finish that year’s World Cup as top-scorer and lead Brazil to glory with both goals in the final.
Without these serious injuries, one can only imagine how good Ronaldo could have been.
In his prime, in the years 1996-99, probably only Maradona could boast that explosive ability to take on players and win a match individually by himself.
Italy defender Fabio Cannavaro has made many world-class strikers look like Sunday League pub players over the years, however even he admitted that when he played against Ronaldo at his peak, he could only pray.
As well as the football side of things, Ronaldo will also be remembered as a genuinely nice and humble person.
El Fenomeno received huge criticism for playing for two sets of rivals (Barcelona & Real Madrid and Inter & Milan) yet he often kept a dignified silence.
He may have been the best player in the world but did he ever boast about it?
Today there are those who have achieved and proved nothing, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, yet they are boastfully self-proclaiming themselves at the best on the planet.
The Manchester United man could learn a lot from his namesake, and regardless of what he does from now until the end of his own career, there will only ever be one ‘real’ Ronaldo - Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima.
Carlo Garagnese