Background

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima was born on September 18, 1976 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is the third child of Nélio Nazário de Lima, Snr. and Sônia dos Santos Barata.

Education

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.

Career

Ronaldo joined the national side in 1994. This year he was transferred 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 1996-1997 season, he scored 34 goals in 37 appearances and helped his team capture the Spanish Super Cup. Because of his success, 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."

Before the new 1998-1999 season, the team had a change of numbers, and Ronaldo received the 9th number. Inter changed four coaches that season. It could not win a single title and became only 9th in the championship.

The new season started off well for Ronaldo, despite knee pain. However, the game against Lecce showed that the operation is required. The meniscus operation was performed in one of the clinics in Paris, and the recovery took 4 months. On April 12, Inter was supposed to play against Lazio in the Italian Cup final. In this game, Ronaldo broke his knee. His career was in jeopardy. Ronaldo was transported to Paris. He again needed an operation, but already more serious, requiring at least one year to recover.

After Ronaldo was discharged from the hospital, he returned to Italy, to the location of his club, where he trained daily and played in friendly matches.

Dismissing concerns that his career was over, Ronaldo returned to competitive play in 2001. At the 2002 World Cup he scored eight goals to earn the Golden Shoe award as the tournament's top scorer 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. 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).

During the first half of the 2007-2008 season due to injury, Ronaldo entered the field several times and scored 2 goals.

In the same season, in a home match San Siro against Livorno, Ronaldo came on as a substitute and was seriously injured. At the time of this injury, Ronaldo was already 30 years old. Given the previous injuries and the serious nature of the new one, Ronaldo could end his career.

In December 2008, a fully recovered Ronaldo signed with the Corinthians in São Paulo. However, he continued to be plagued by a number of other, less significant, leg injuries during his tenure with the Corinthians as well as by a thyroid condition that made him gain weight, and he abruptly retired from the sport in February 2011.

He was also the co-owner of A1 Team Brazil, along with former F1 driver Emerson Fittipaldi. Ronaldo co-owns the sports marketing company 9INE, with his friend Anderson Silva. On December 11, 2014, he became a minority owner of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the North American Soccer League. In 2015, Ronaldo opened eight new branches of his youth football school - the Ronaldo Academy.

In 2018 Ronaldo became the majority owner of the Spanish club Real Valladolid.

Achievements

• Ronaldo is known as a legendary Brazilian national team player. He is considered one of the best strikers of all time. He has won the Ballon D'Or twice and has been the world's best player of FIFA for 3 times.
  
  At age 17, he was the youngest member of the Brazilian squad that won the 1994 FIFA World Cup. At 20 years old he was named the 1996 FIFA World Player of the Year, making him the youngest recipient of the award. At the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo received the Golden Ball for player of the tournament. He also received the Golden Boot as the tournament's top goalscorer. At the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo scored his 15th FIFA World Cup goal, a FIFA World Cup record at the time. He also won the 1997 Copa América and the 1999 Copa América.
  
  Ronaldo was named in the FIFA 100 list of the greatest living players compiled in 2004 by Pelé and was inducted into the Brazilian Football Museum Hall of Fame, Italian Football Hall of Fame, Inter Milan Hall of Fame and Real Madrid Hall of Fame.

Works

More photos

• movie

  • Goal III: Taking on the World

    (With football's World Cup as it backdrop, this is the sto...)

    2009
  • Goal! The Dream Begins 2005
  • Goal II: Living the Dream 2007

Religion

Ronaldo is a practicing Catholic. He donated a signed football to Pope Francis. Accompanied with a signed Brazil jersey from Pelé, it is located in one of the Vatican Museums.

Politics

Ronaldo said: "I promised myself not to be involved any more in politics and not support anyone. I just hope for myself and for my people that we can improve as a country. No more corruption. No more hunger."

Views

Ronaldo works as a United Nations Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, a position to which he was appointed in the year 2000.

Ronaldo has been involved in various charitable endeavours throughout his career. He played in a number of charity football matches, such as the UN's Match Against Poverty, which has contributed funds towards aid efforts in different countries. The 2014 game Ronaldo played in helped in the recovery of the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan, while the 2015 game focused on giving aid to African countries affected by the Ebola epidemic.

Ronaldo is the founder of the Fundacao Fenomenos (Phenomena Foundation), which aims to encourage positive social development in Brazil by investing in projects that help communities across the South American country.

Quotations: "I love to score goals after passing all the defenders as well as the keeper. This is not my speciality, but my habit."

"I don't consider myself as the best player in the world. I'm not obsessed with individual titles. I'm much more interested in being part of a team which wins trophies."

"It will take time for us all to understand what has happened to us, but it is a joy to be surrounded by such happiness."

"Goals are always in demand. There will always be a market for a striker who is fast, scores goals regularly and is strong. I've scored more than 100 goals and people know what they are buying."

"Of course I'm flattered to be compared to Pele, but Pele only left the playing fields after scoring 1,000 goals and I'm just getting started."

"My life has always been a series of challenges and I'm psychologically-prepared but this is the biggest challenge of my life."

"I will celebrate, but I know new goals and objectives will come and I am ready to take them."

"There is room for individuality, but without the strength of this Brazil group it is nothing."

"I've never timed myself over 100m, but I have done a test over shorter distances, 20m or 30m, with and without the ball. What's strange is that I'm faster with the ball than without it. Some people are born for distance running and others for sprint."

"I am very ambitious. I want to enjoy this and then really go for it."

"I knew when I started playing professionally that being an idol means catering for fans. Without them, there's no game. I don't mind signing autographs, but what I really want to give fans are lots of goals."

"Pele is the greatest player in football history, and there would only be one Pele in the world."

"In Brazil every kid starts playing street football very early. It's in our blood. As a professional I started at Sao Cristovao in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Of course I also played in the beach soccer league, barefoot."

"In Latin America, the pace is slower, it is more technical. In Europe, it is faster, but I haven't had any problems adapting to it."

"Every time I went away I was deceiving my mum. I'd tell her I was going to school but I'd be out on the street playing football. I always had a ball on my feet."

"It's amazing. It is like yesterday when I was still watching the stars of Brazilian football on TV, and I am one of them now. I miss my childhood. I left my family at 15 and then left Brazil for Holland when I was 17."

"I'm here to score a lot of goals. It's my speciality, that's what I've been brought here to do, and I want to score plenty; like I did with Barcelona. And here, there's every reason to think I can do it."

"Everyone tells me that the Italian championship is the toughest in the world, but I'm not afraid. In my career, I've always scored goals, wherever I've been."

Personality

Ronaldo was a prolific goalscorer. Despite being more of an individualistic attacker, he was also capable of providing assists for his teammates, due to his vision, passing and crossing ability. He was an extremely powerful, fast, and technical player, with excellent movement, as well as being a composed finisher.

Ronaldo Nazario's net worth is estimated to be $150 million and this is gotten from his playing days and the several businesses that he runs.

Physical Characteristics: Ronaldo is 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) tall and weighs 82 kilos (180 lb).

Quotes from others about the person

• Lionel Messi: "Ronaldo was my hero. He was the best striker I've ever seen. He was so fast he could score from nothing, and could shoot the ball better than anyone."
  
  Ronaldinho: "He was always an example for young people to look up to, for the way he overcame adversity. I was fortunate enough to play alongside him, my idol, for many years and we had so many great times together. He was always an idol of mine and will always be a friend."
  
  Luis Figo: "What made Ronaldo different was his sheer physical strength. He is the best I have played with."
  
  Michel Salgado: "Ronaldo Nazário was, without doubt, the best striker I've ever seen. What I saw him do was spectacular, and that was having come to the club after a World Cup and having been sidelined for two years before that with a knee injury."

Interests

• poker

Connections

In 1997, Ronaldo met the Brazilian model and actress Susana Werner on the set of Brazilian telenovela Malhação. They lived together until the beginning of 1999.

In April 1999, Ronaldo married Brazilian footballer Milene Domingues. The couple's first son, Ronald, was born on April 6, 2000. The marriage lasted four years. In 2005, Ronaldo became engaged to Brazilian model Daniela Cicarelli. She became pregnant but later suffered a miscarriage. Their relationship lasted only three months after the wedding.

Ronaldo is married to Maria Beatriz Antony. She gave birth to their first daughter, named Maria Sophia, in Rio de Janeiro, on December 24, 2008. On April 6, 2010, Maria Beatriz Antony gave birth to their second daughter - Maria Alice.

In December 2010, Ronaldo was confirmed to be the father of a boy named Alexander, born in April 2005 from Michele Umezu, a Brazilian waitress who Ronaldo first met in Tokyo in 2002. On December 6, 2010 Ronaldo stated that he had had a vasectomy.

Father:

Nélio Nazário de Lima, Snr.

Mother:

Sônia dos Santos Barata

Spouse:

Maria Beatriz Antony

ex-partner:

Susana Werner

(born July 20, 1977)

ex-spouse:

Milene Domingues

(born June 18, 1979)

Milene Domingues is a Brazilian former footballer who played as a midfielder.

ex-spouse:

Daniela Cicarelli

(November 6, 1978)

Daniela Cicarelli is a Brazilian former model and TV show hostess for MTV Brasil's Beija Sapo.

ex-partner:

Michele Umezu

Son:

Ronald Nazario de Lima

(born April 6, 2000)

Daughter:

Maria Sophia de Lima

(born December 24, 2008)

Daughter:

Maria Alice de Lima

(born April 6, 2010)

Son:

Alexander de Lima

(born April 2005)

Friend:

Anderson Silva

(born April 14, 1975)

Anderson Silva is a Brazilian-American professional mixed martial artist currently signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He is a former UFC Middleweight Champion and holds the record for the longest title reign in UFC history at 2,457 days.

References

• Ronaldo's Instagram
• Ronaldo's Twitter
• Ronaldo's Facebook