of all the legends i've ever made videos about there has always been one that even when compared to others stands on a league of his own a player that had it all and who many considered to be the most complete footballer of all time completely unstoppable able to dance with the ball on his feet and almost impossible to defend no matter the stage he proved time and time again that he was special a player who regardless of rules or error would unquestionably dominate hey guys what's up it's reymar and today after so many of you have been asking we are of course finally gonna take a look at how good was ronaldo the phenomenon ronaldo was born to be the perfect footballer from the very beginning as early as he can remember he would be groomed by the streets of rio de janeiro his entire childhood ronaldo was so passionate about football that his mother sonia would recall his childhood days saying i always found him on the streets playing with his friends when he should have been in school when he was 11 years old ronaldo's parents would go through a divorce which would lead ronaldo to drop out of school completely as you can imagine for an 11 year old it's pretty tough to go through that football would be ronaldo's go-to his escape and his saving grace no matter the circumstance this dedication and passion for the game made him blessed by the football gods the football loved him just as much as he loved the game at the age of 12 ronaldo would join a local indoor futsal team called social ramos and go on to score a 166 goals on his first season which included a time where he scored a mind-blowing 11 out of his team's 12 total goals in a single match like just imagine how the players on the other team must have felt watching that to be honest i probably would have left after that 10th goal ronaldo would say that because he grew up playing on the streets futsal was his first love when it came to the game it's where he said he learned to be able to control the ball and move in the tightest of spaces along with learning to have an incredibly soft touch after playing in narrow alleyways with uneven paving his entire childhood forcing him to master his control of the ball the young ronaldo would eventually be spotted by brazilian legend jarzinio who if you didn't know led his country in scoring in the 1970 world cup even though he had pele as a teammate which can only attest to his ability when jarzinio saw the young ronaldo he saw a player with incredible potential a kid who just seemed different from all the others so naturally he knew that he had to have the young ronaldo on his team jarzinio would quickly recognize the pure talent and skill that the young child prodigy ronaldo had and recommended that the 16 year old should join his former club cruzeiro however ronaldo had always wanted to play for flamengo a brazilian team he supported ever since he was a child and also a club where brazilian legends like zizinio once played however flamingo never decided to wait and give ronaldo a chance jarzini would push ronaldo to play for cruzeiro anyways and speak to the club with a personal recommendation to eventually get him signed this would finally take us to ronaldo's senior career at the incredibly young age of only 16 ronaldo would make his professional debut for cruzeiro i mean when i was 16 i was still playing pokemon in my nintendo ds could you just imagine being that young and playing against fully grown men it would take ronaldo only a few months to gain national attention when he would score five goals in a single game shocking even established footballers from his own country former brazilian captain and legend kafu recalls seeing ronaldo play for the first time saying he was still a kid it was in a game where he ended up scoring five goals from that point on he showed that he was truly a phenomenon by this point flamengo realized just how big of a mistake they made by not giving ronaldo a chance because in his two seasons for cruzeiro ronaldo would score an amazing 44 goals in 47 games an incredible goal scoring ratio of . 94 goals a game at the age of 16. helping his club which was by no means a real contender win the brazilian cup ronaldo as a 17 year old was asked to join the brazilian national team for their 1994 world cup run brazil would go on to win that world cup in which ronaldo did not play at all or for that matter wasn't really even needed but the experience of the seniors and multiple legends on that team would help mentor him as much as they could along with giving ronaldo a taste at world victory after the 1994 world cup ronaldo would move to the netherlands to play for psv eindhoven after former brazilian teammate and legend romario who won the 1994 world player of the year and 1994 world cup golden boot and golden ball would recommend ronaldo to play for the club as he himself had played for them ronaldo would continue his absolutely phenomenal play by scoring 35 goals in 36 appearances in his first season in the era division an insane .
97 goals per game ratio in fact after scoring a hat-trick in the uefa cup against bayern leverkusen german world cup winner rudy waller said never in my life have i seen an 18 year old play this way ronaldo was so skilled at dribbling the ball it was like it was glued to his feet with some even saying that it seemed like he was even faster dribbling the ball than running without it his second season the psv would see him suffer the first injury of his career causing him to play nearly 50 less matches than last season but nevertheless before he went down managed to score 19 goals in 21 games still nearly a goal per game ratio all at the age of 19. before he would even turn 21 he broke the world record transfer fee of 19. 5 million euros which back in 1996 was an absolutely insane amount of money when barcelona decided to go all out and grab him he would be worth every single cent and more as during his first season ronaldo scored an insane 47 goals in 49 appearances winning him the la liga top scorer award and the european golden boot he would also help barcelona win the uefa cup by scoring in the final itself along with winning the spanish super cup and copa del rey all at 20 years old ronaldo was at his physical prime at barcelona being insanely fast and strong along with having the perfect size for a forward to be able to body defenders trying to get rough and often many of his goals would include him running around the goalkeeper like he was playing with kids an atletico madrid player quentin fortune would say as a kid i wanted to be pele i bought all the books all the videos and i studied what i could to be like the best i set off on that path then i met ronaldo some players were technical some were quick some were strong some were smart ronaldo was all of those which was absolutely true players would even try to follow him but his quick movement size and strength combined with his incredible dribbling brushed defenders off like nothing jose mourinho back when he worked for fc barcelona when ronaldo was playing there would say i have no doubt ronaldo is the greatest player i have ever seen in my life and he would later confirm the same thing in an interview back in 2014 ronaldo's first and only season with barcelona saw him as the youngest player to ever win the fifa world player of the year award however he would only play second in ballon d'or voting losing to matthias samar of borussia dortmund by a single vote that's right by a single vote by the end of his career ronaldo would have had three ballon doors if he had won that one which he clearly deserved in my opinion the very next season in 1997 ronaldo would once again break the world record transfer fee in back-to-back years being the only player to ever do so that's just how valuable he was inter milan decided to go all out themselves and pay a 27 million euro fee to get him while his goal scoring numbers weren't as high they were definitely great as he was transitioning into the serie ah which back then was considered the most heavily defensive league despite that he still managed to score 34 goals in 47 matches which is still an amazing .
72 goals per game ratio ronaldo also learned to become a more complete forward racking up assist and taking and scoring free kicks in his first season with inter milan he would be rightfully handed the fifa world player of the year award again as well as finally winning the ballon d'or making him the youngest player to ever win the award at 20 years old which and i can't stress enough should have been his second ballon d'or as he definitely deserved one in 1996 as well in 1998 ronaldo was already considered the undisputed greatest striker in the world at just 22 years old he was already appointed as the captain of his inter milan squad and although we would start to see him suffering a few injuries at this time and missing some games he would still score 15 goals in 28 appearances winning the syria player of the year award he was phenomenal in the 1998 world cup as well scoring four goals and getting three assists winning him the player of the tournament award unfortunately ronaldo and brazil would infamously break down in the final and lost france but regardless of that nobody questioned ronaldo's skills for even a moment however in 1999 ronaldo who seemed absolutely unstoppable infamously began to suffer a string of severe injuries ronaldo would limp off the pitch during elazio match only to discover that he suffered a ruptured tendon on his knee and required major surgery he would be gone for half a year until he would play the first leg of a copa italian match as history would have it it was way too early for inter milan to let him play as after only six minutes he collapsed on the floor and the world would learn that he suffered a complete rupture of his kneecap tendons it was so impactful that opposing players like diego simeone even went up to him to help the young star like i said ronaldo was never a player that people hated so even for opposing players it was just sad to see ronaldo would miss the entirety of the 2000-2001 season and about 80 percent of the 2001-2002 season many people thought that after all the surgeries and irreplaceable damage to his knees ronaldo would never be the same that he would lose his touch skill and eye for goal however the 2002 world cup would shock the entire world and forever establish his name as the phenomenon prior to the world cup brazil was doing horrendous and to many were lucky to even qualify for the tournament but with ronaldo playing it was a different story he would lead his country to the 2002 world cup trophy scoring in every match except in the quarterfinal against england ultimately ending with eight goals and winning the tournament's golden boot his comeback was talked about all over the world and would earn him the 2002 fifa world player of the year award and the 2002 ballon d'or which nobody questioned at all and i just have to remind you guys again should have been his third ballon d'or when ronaldo signed with real madrid after the world cup his jersey sales would break all records on the very first day ronaldo would score in the final season match for real madrid winning them the la league title as well as scoring in the intercontinental cup and spanish super cup finals ronaldo would also famously score a hat-trick against manchester united in the champions league quarter-final which caused the entirety of old trafford to stand and give him a loud applause as he exited the game on the 80th minute in the champions league semi-final he scored a goal and helped real madrid win 2-1 over juventus on the first leg but received an injury and wouldn't play during their second meeting much to the demise of real madrid as without him they were eliminated from the competition he would end his first season in madrid scoring 30 goals and having eight assists in 44 appearances a . 68 goals per game ratio the next season ronaldo was visibly different he seemed like he gained a lot of weight compared to his physical peak prior to the injuries that destroyed his knees however not too many people took too much attention to it at the time as he was still doing what he did best scoring beautiful goals real madrid were actually on track to win a treble in ronaldo's second season but injuries again prevented him from reaching further accomplishments he would miss the copa del rey final which they would lose and also get eliminated in the champions league quarterfinal without him this was also the season he scored that iconic 15 second goal ronaldo would still manage 31 goals and 13 assists in 48 matches a . 65 goals per game ratio which was still impressive considering all the stars madrid had during their galactose era that individually could all find their own ways of getting the ball in the back of the net within the next few seasons at real madrid ronaldo's performances would gradually decrease over the years scoring less and less while also noticeably losing pace and gaining a lot of weight in fact during his two final seasons of real madrid he would only play a total of 40 matches which is less than he played on his third season alone although even with this it by no means meant that he performed poorly for madrid at all maintaining above a .
50 goals per game ratio up until his final season where he managed to make only 15 appearances unfortunately madrid fans could see the end of the road for ronaldo at the bernabau his final years at real madrid were plagued with injuries fitness issues and substantial weight gain although he still had the skill unfortunately ronaldo's body simply couldn't keep up with it and with this ronaldo would depart real madrid in 2007 and head back to italy to play for ac milan despite the clear lack of fitness ronaldo still managed to score seven goals in 14 matches a testament to his pure skill alone it's when he was an ac milan that on top of all the injuries he received during his career he was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and for anyone who doesn't know it slows down a person's metabolism extremely making it very easy to gain weight in a short amount of time and much more difficult for you to lose it this condition was diagnosed in 2007 but as many expect could have been present with ronaldo ever since 2003 after his world cup winning year ronaldo's second season for ac milan saw him playing less than 300 minutes which for anyone who witnessed him in his prime was truly a saddening sight as during a match he would once again suffer a horrifying knee injury that required him to get wheeled off directly to the hospital where he wouldn't play football for several months once again ronaldo would finally go back to brazil to play the last few years of his career in 2009 if you were to look at ronaldo and didn't know any better you would think that he was already retired as his weight gain was even more severe nonetheless in his three seasons with brazilian side corinthians he managed to help them win the brazilian cup in 2009 although clearly a shadow of what he was before ronaldo was still loved by the people to no end every single game he scored in sent fans absolutely wild with happiness at just seeing their idols score once more in fact in his first season he scored eight goals in nine matches rallying the citizens to request the brazilian national team to call him up just one more time for old time's sake that's just how much the people of brazil respected and loved him they knew he wasn't there to score and dominate like he used to but to just see him touch the ball and even score made the fans go absolutely wild watching him score some of the last goals in his career you can't help but just smile as you can feel just how special of a moment it is for not only himself but his fans and peers as well ronaldo announced his retirement in 2011 saying that his hyperthyroidism had gotten the best of him and the many severely crippling injuries he received throughout his career were just too much for his body to handle to this day ronaldo remains one of the most iconic players ever and to some he was even the greatest for me i believe he was the most perfect and complete forward that has ever played his ability to score dribble and finish on top of his strength and speed in his prime at least to me is on a class of its own he wasn't lucky enough to win the champions league because of crucial injuries and unfortunate times but that doesn't take anything away from his career ronaldo would certainly be my main choice as the starting forward for my all-time eleven and i have no doubt in my mind that he certainly belongs there if anything ronaldo's story only makes me appreciate players i love watching even more we never know when something might happen to them or when they'll finally hang their boots for the last time that's why i made it my mission to watch my favorite players for as long as i can and you can do it too with espn plus espn plus lets you watch your favorite football matches live in hd and in any device you could possibly think of from syria to bundesliga fa cup mls or international friendlies espn plus has you covered you can also replay and watch whatever you want whenever you want and watch programs like espn fc for all things football or keep up to date with the latest scores news or tables from every top league around the world espn plus is my go-to to watch my favorite player cristiano ronaldo in action you can also watch hundreds of original content and programs from a bunch of different sports as well all for the price of 5.
