Ronaldo to announce retirement Monday

Pinturicchio

REUTERS, Feb 14, 2011

RIO DE JANEIRO: Former Brazil striker Ronaldo will announce his retirement from soccer on Monday, he told a Brazilian newspaper on Sunday.

The 34-year-old three-times world player of the year has a contract with Corinthians until the end of 2011 but is bringing his retirement forward following the team's shock early elimination from the Libertadores Cup.

Ronaldo told the Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper's website his regular injury problems were one of his main reasons for quitting now.

"I can't take it any more," Ronaldo said. "I wanted to carry on, but I can't. I plan a move (in a game) but I can't execute as I wish. The time is up."

Peyton Manning

In before the hilarious "I thought you meant Cristiano" comments.

Brazil legend Ronaldo is set to announce his retirement tomorrow. When he returned to Brazil, he said he wanted to help Corinthians win the Copa Libertadores before retirement. Sadly, Corinthians were knocked out of the cup by Tolima a couple of weeks ago, and coupled with his injury troubles, Ronaldo has decided to bring his retirement forward.

"I can't take it any more," Ronaldo said. "I wanted to carry on, but I can't. I plan a move (in a game) but I cant execute as I wish. The time is up."

As a huge fan of his, the above quote is absolutely heartbreaking, and makes me really sad. He's one of the finest players I've ever seen (I maintain he's the best player to ever play the game, although that's just personal taste and opinion) and while there'll always be the ignorant "Fat Ronaldo" jibes, he never lost his passion for the game and he has always been one of the most clinical strikers in the world. His goals to games record is absurd considering the number of games he's played.

He'll always go down as the best individual performance vs Man Utd I've ever seen, and it was one of the least painful cup exits I've ever experienced from my team as I got to witness that display as consolation. Also scored one of the finest goals I've seen, the one that promted that hands on head "I dont believe it" reaction from Bobby Robson vs. Compostela.

Utterly sensational player, thanks for the memories Ron

Sir Bobby Robson wrote:

I was lucky enough to play for England with Billy Wright, Johnny Haynes and Bobby Charlton until I was left out for some bloke called Bobby Moore. And what a privilege it was to be the manager of such great players as Terry Butcher, Bryan Robson, Paul Gascoigne, Romario, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer. I had Ruud van Nistelrooy and Luis Figo in my teams as teenagers, pitted my wits against Cloughie and Fergie, and was cheated by Diego Maradona….. The best player I ever worked with? Tough competition, but it has to be Brazil’s Ronaldo.

(The 2002 World Cup final is on ESPN Classic tomorrow. I'll sit back and enjoy it, watching my favourite ever player dominate at the pinnacle of world football)

flahavaj

One of the all time greats.:(

Peyton Manning

Pinturicchio got there before me, please move this over to his thread

FearDark

Awh bóllocks its the fat one :mad:

CorkMan

One of my favourite players of all time. He was my favourite player from of the from when I was 9-10 till now.

Legend.

Paully D

Cracking player.

All the best to him in the future.

Pauleta

The greatest player ive ever seen. Im so happy he got his redemption in 2002 and i got to see him in the flesh at Lansdowne Road. Considering he had so many injuries he still managed to rack up 620 games and a mediocre 420 goals

Neil3030

Jesus, this is probably the first time I remember a guy breaking onto the scene retiring. Really goes to show how short their careers are/how old I'm getting!!

ShamoBuc

Savage player in his day - won a bundle on him being top scorer and Brazil to win world cup all those years ago!

eZe^

Amazing that he never won the CL.

Jimmy Iovine

Sad to hear this. He was one of the few players that I was truly amazed by. I remember him playing against Scotland in the group stages of the 1998 WC when I was 8. Don't think he scored but he made one run from the touchline dribbling past 4 or 5 players and then curled a shot just wide. That's about the only thing I remember from that WC along with the obvious Beckham sending off. I was devastated when Brazil didn't win the final. I remember being totally transfixed by the saga about his inclusion in the team sheet. It was also the first time I saw Pele on tv talking.

The next few years were strange. He went from being the talk of the school yard, everyone wanted to be him, and the world to training on his own for his rehabilitation. I used to read whatever I could about him in World Soccer. I also, at one stage, considered signing up for one of those free Portugese learning the language kits in the Indo so that I could write to him and become his penpal. Very sad I know and definitely one of the more stupid ideas that I've ever come up with.

WC '02 was his World Cup, no doubt. Such an absolute joy to see him come back from a couple of career-threatening injuries to score so many goals and claim his place alongside Robbie Keane as being the only player to score against Oliver Khan .

I think it'll be a very, very long time until we see as complete a player as him. The power he had to run through two players and still maintain his balance and then score was incredible at times.

I also remember being very proud of the fact I knew his whole name, Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima or simply El Fenómeno.

Peyton Manning

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

r. I also, at one stage, considered signing up for one of those free Portugese learning the language kits in the Indo so that I could write to him and become his penpal. Very sad I know and definitely one of the more stupid ideas that I've ever come up with.

I don't think I've ever read anything on this forum that put such a smile on my face

Jimmy Iovine

Tom_Brady wrote: »

I don't think I've ever read anything on this forum that put such a smile on my face

Haha cheers. I toyed with the idea for a long time but decided it was best not to. Good idea considering the address I'd have put on it would probably have been Ronaldo, Brazil. Probably still would have gotten to him though

CorkMan

eZe^ wrote: »

Amazing that he never won the CL.

I suppose many players who win the champions league will never have a hope at winning the World Cup.

Ronaldo was in 2 world cup finals, scoring 2 in the 2002 final. Brazil are good for the world cup, but Ronaldo was their greatness as evidence by his 15 goals for them in the world cup.

ColmDawson

Is anyone else really sad?

I went off football from about 2002 until 2009 or so. The Ronaldo I knew was an absolute hero, the best player in the world.
When I started following football again a couple of years ago, it was strange to catch up on the various players I'd loved as a kid.
A little bit disconcerting, returning to see players who'd been in their prime when I was a kid, in the twilight of their careers.
Finding out Ronaldo had had such trouble and had lost so much to injuries was quite a sad thing. A reminder that time passes and people age.
I know he's only 34, but in footballing terms he's a battered old man.

There's going to be a lot of verbal wankery in this thread about his talent (and rightly so) so I'll keep it short: I've never seen anyone else who could do what he did.

recyclops

Was at the real united thriller and can say it was ann absolute joy to watch him at the top of his game, clapped him off and still talk about that performance with my dad on a regular basis.

Peyton Manning

Sir Alex said he enquired about Ronaldo when he was at PSV, and wanted to sign him, but he wanted £50,000 a week which would have broken the wage structure at the club.

No offence to Alan Shearer, he was a great striker, but if Shearer could get the amount of goals he got in the league back then, just imagine what Ronaldo would have done :eek:

When talking about players, a lot of people says "Oh but could he do it in this league or that league". I don't think there's a league in the world that could have kept him in quiet.

flahavaj

For all the skills he had and all the goals he got and all the medals he won I admire him more for recovering from those injuries in the way he did. You hear a lot of morons jeer him for being fat and lazy and this and that - the hard work and pain he went through to get back to the level he did would make 99.9% of people on this planet throw in the towel.

Jimmy Iovine

The one great quote that I remember hearing from him after the 2002 final was this

Ronaldo said winning the World Cup is better than sex. "Both are very hard to stay without and I'm sure sex wouldn't be so rewarding as this World Cup," he said. "It's not that sex isn't good but the World Cup is every four years and sex is not."

He added: "I'm going to have sex in a few moments."

I also found this one which I think sums up perfectly the injury-plagued part of his career

My great victory was to return to the pitch, to play soccer, to score goals," he said. "I believe that even if had we had lost, I had conquered my personal victory, which was to play again.

MisterAnarchy

Sad news .
The knees are very complex joints and poor old Ron had a bad run of luck with them.

RandolphEsq

He defines the word 'striker'; pace, power, skill, finishing, heading, dribbling, technique. Legend.

ColmDawson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7KaFpf7Ovg

I'm off to play Copa Libertadores in Pro Evo and ponder the frailty of the human body...

darragh16

Whatever happened to him before the World cup final in 98 doesn't matter, because 4 years later after numerous injuries he showed that he was probably one of the best strikers in the past 15 years.

eZe^

darragh16 wrote: »

he was probably one of the best strikers in the past 15 years.

Best striker of all time I reckon. Definitely the best of the past 20 years.

Blatter

In before the tranny comments/fat jibes.
I propose anyone who tars his memory gets a lifetime ban.

1mcampo1

Undoubtedly one of, if not THE best of his gereration


On a side note...

...was delighted that Klose didn't get equal Ronaldo's 15 goals during the world cup

Peyton Manning

Any one who questions his commitment to the game and thinks he lost his passion for it should see some of the quotes about his retirement.

"I've been crying like a baby for the last few days...My head wants to continue, but my body can't take it anymore."

That makes me so unbelievably sad

Oat23

The best player I've ever seen play.
People always come back with Zidane when I say this and I say feck off. Zidane never brought as much happiness to me as Ronaldo did.
That game against United he was invincible. Forty years from now it will still be the best game I've ever witnessed and will still raise a grey hair or two on the back of my neck.

The amount of sh*t he has taken the last few weeks along with Roberto Carlos from the Corinthians fans is shocking. They don't deserve to have either of them in their team and now they don't. Two legends of the game don't deserve to be treated the way they were.

Tom_Brady wrote: »

"I've been crying like a baby for the last few days...My head wants to continue, but my body can't take it anymore.

bamboozling

My favourite player ever. The first player who really had me in awe of what he did. The fact that he came back from career destroying injuries 3 times and still went on to achieve what he achieved.

He changed his game completely after the second knee injury using his awareness and positioning to get into to goal scoring positions whereas before he relied heavily on speed.

I'll never forget his hat trick against United or his goal in 1996 for Barcelona when he ran the length of the field.

The whole fat jibes and endless confusion with Ronaldo saddens me and shows the ignorance amongst many football fans.

This guy was the best of his generation and would have been the best ever were it not for injuries. For me he was that little bit better than Zidane. I get the feeling that had he played in England he would be hailed as the greatest player to play the game by many. Either way it doesn't matter because he and other people realise just how good he was.

By the way Archi/Tom could you embed your Ronaldo video, rather fitting at this moment I would think.

Jax Teller

Didn't someone from here write a great piece on ronaldo awhile ago ?

Peyton Manning

bamboozling wrote: »

By the way Archi/Tom could you embed your Ronaldo video, rather fitting at this moment I would think.

Would love to, but it was too long for youtube so I had to put it on vimeo, and this forum doesn't have a vimeo embedding tool (although apparently the powers that be are looking into it! )

Here's the link for what it's worth.

Wolfe Tone

Oatesy23 wrote: »

The best player I've ever seen play.
People always come back with Zidane when I say this and I say feck off. Zidane never brought as much happiness to me as Ronaldo did.
That game against United he was invincible. Forty years from now it will still be the best game I've ever witnessed and will still raise a grey hair or two on the back of my neck.

The amount of sh*t he has taken the last few weeks along with Roberto Carlos from the Corinthians fans is shocking. They don't deserve to have either of them in their team and now they don't. Two legends of the game don't deserve to be treated the way they were.

Roberto Carlos is gone too? What type of abuse did they get? They were hardly both horribly sh!te for them.

Peyton Manning

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Roberto Carlos is gone too? What type of abuse did they get? They were hardly both horribly sh!te for them.

They were eliminated from the Copa Libertadores before the group stage by Deportivo Tolima, and both have them along with their families have been threatened. Roberto Carlos handed in a transfer request immediately and is now in the Russian league (team name escapes me). Ronaldo said he wanted to stay and help the team, but a combination of a fresh injury, his best friend leaving, and the fact that Corinthians now have Liedson so he wouldn't be leaving them short on options means he's brought his retirement forward.

Oat23

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Roberto Carlos is gone too? What type of abuse did they get? They were hardly both horribly sh!te for them.

RC is gone to play in Russia for Anzhi. On $8m a season for 2 seasons. He was getting threats against him and his family and people were following his car around trying to intimidate him. All because he couldn't play in the Copa Libertadores game against Tolima 2 weeks ago and they blamed him and Ronaldo for their exit from the competition.

5T3PH3N

Genuinely saddened by this, he was my footballing hero when I was a kid. He was just that type of player that makes you want to go out and play football after seeing him play.

We used to play ball almost every day and someone would always bagsie being Ronaldo which would always cause a fight because, of course, everybody wanted to be him.

I've got two Brazil jerseys, one real and one fake. They've both got Ronaldo on the back. I usually get rid of my jerseys when I grow out of them but these two I will always keep.

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima - The Real Ronaldo.

Oat23

Last goal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7RX-aN561c

89th minute penalty won and scored by Il Fenomeno to give Corinthians a 1-0 win.

Peyton Manning

Some interesting stories about Ronaldo's childhood that I find fascinating. When his mother was a few weeks pregnant, she went to see a witch doctor, which is something a lot of pregnant women did in the slums of Brazil. There she was told that not only would her child be a boy, but that he would possess an exceptional talent that would help his family escape from Bento Ribeiro for good. He also shares two birthday celebrations - his actual date of birth on 18th September which he celebrates privately with his family - and another more public celebration on 22nd September, as his father could not afford to have his birth registered straight away, and it took him 4 days to gather the money to pay for it.

He started out playing football for a local tennis club (which, oddly enough, did not have a tennis court) in the Brazilian indoor leagues at 9 years old. The only position available was in goal, so yes, Ronaldo's first ever official match was as a goalkeeper. Eventually he was given his chance outfield, and scored 4 goals in one half of football against the state champions. A year later he would go on to join a bigger team, Social Ramos, where he shattered all previous saláo (indoor football) records with 166 goals in one season, including 11 in a game where his team scored 12 goals.

He earned trials with Flamengo at 13 years old, a team he first saw amid 100,000 spectators at the Maracana stadium as he went to see his hero Zico. He performed brilliantly at the trials. However, he never made the team as he could not afford the bus fare for the final trial. Flamengo refused to loan him the money, and failed him on account of non-attendance. The price Flamengo missed out on Ronaldo for? A mere 20p.

Cianan2

This has actually hit me worse then I thought. What a player, as a striker I wanted to be him. Never happened, though.

I guess one memory that springs to mind is when the R9 Nike boots came out, and I wasn't allowed get them. I was truly devastated not to be allowed have the same boots as one of my footballing heroes! I purposefully "forgot" my own pair of boots to our next match, knowing one of my team-mates had 2 pairs of these sacred R9's, which he kindly lent 1 of which to me. I scored 2 goals that day, probably due to me brimming with confidence, and was called up to the A team for the following week (only never to score one goal for them and be dropped back to the B's after 3ish weeks!!)

Thank you Ronaldo.

Professional Griefer

Fantastic player.

Easily one the best of my lifetime, if not of all time.

440 apps, incl International, 309 goals, according to Wiki.

Amazing record.

Its a pity hes today hes known as ''fat Ronaldo'' these days.
Truly a great player.
I hope he lives a decent life and has no problems, a fantastic player, and I assume to Brazilians, a hero. Great player, he should be proud of himself.

GavRedKing

Cant say enough good things about the guy.

People always use the word legend rather cheaply these days but there is no other word that sums up R9.

He got stick from all quarters, about training and been over weight, but TBF to the lad he missed about 3 years of football with 3 serious injuries and came back each time and still scored goals.

He done it in Holland, Spain, Italy, at International level and the Champions League and not forgetting the World Cup.

My main hope is that his 15 WC goals record is never broken, it would be a great legacy to one of the greatest ever players, who had it all and was a joy to watch.

kryogen

Sad day for football, best striker I have ever seen up close, who knows how good he could have been if he wasnt so unlucly with injury considering he is one of the best that ever played the game even with his injury history

Legend.

Kess73

Amazing player who actually deserved the too easily given World Class tag.

Jimmy Iovine

I had to laugh when I saw this article about it all (http://gaysocialites.com/info/2011/02/14/brazils-soccer-eye-candy-ronaldo-quits/). Basically it's an article on a gay news site that go waaaaaay ahead of itself by putting a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo above the article. I know many people would probably prefer if this was true but I can't see how they could possibly make that mistake. I'm not gonna go down the road of saying typical Americans though or make any other generalisations :P.

I can't stop thinking about his career and all the enjoyment he brought with him. A truly great player and I wish him the best in whatever he does afterwards.

Bodhidharma

I never saw Pele, Cryuff, Platini, Best or Puskas play. Maradona was coming to the end of his career in the early nineties, as was Van Basten. Ronaldo is the greatest player I've ever seen by a country mile. Every time he touched the ball you'd get excited.

He is the only player in the last twenty years who had the possibility of being the greatest of all time. Injuries ruined that but still phenomenal.

AgileMyth

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

I had to laugh when I saw this article about it all (http://gaysocialites.com/info/2011/02/14/brazils-soccer-eye-candy-ronaldo-quits/). Basically it's an article on a gay news site that go waaaaaay ahead of itself by putting a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo above the article. I know many people would probably prefer if this was true but I can't see how they could possibly make that mistake. I'm not gonna go down the road of saying typical Americans though or make any other generalisations :P.

Browsing the auld gay news sites again Jimmy?

Sad day. Along with Zidane the best of a generation, easily the best striker in my time following football.
Maybe Sligo Rovers will put in a cheeky bid for him:pac:

bullvine

Best Player Since Maradonna, end of story!

Oat23

AgileMyth wrote: »

Maybe Sligo Rovers will put in a cheeky bid for him:pac:

Michael O'Neill agreed a deal with him last week unfortunately .

Fuzzy_Dunlop

Absolutely incredible player.

Here's what Nasri has to say just now on twitter:

guys today a legend is retired for me he is the best striker for all time he had everything speed skills technique 1vs1 he is a dream player. i just want say thank you for everything you have done Mr Ronaldo IL FENOMENO

DrumSteve

First Neville... Now this?

tdv123

Not much more to say about him thats already been said.

Along with Zidane & Messi the greatest players I've ever seen play the game & if he didnt have those injuries I would probably being saying the best.

Was hoping he might get a proper send off at the Copa America this summer but it wasnt meant to be.