Ronaldo is set to announce his retirement on Monday at age 34. He's been a pro for 18 years and during that time provided some wonderful highlights, one of the game's best ever players. Here is a video compilation of some of his great goals, and a few other plays by him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Jy9XIwGfwQ...H0gw1nryXCP7tGQ

The music accompaning the video is in my opinion horrible, turn mute on and watch the phenomenon at work!

There is also discussion of his retirement in the Campeonato Paulista 2011 discussion thread but that is more related to its effect on his club Corinthians. This thread will be to discuss his career.

Next to Maradona, Ronaldo is the best player I have ever seen, Pele, Cruyff and Beckenbauer were a little before my time and I only saw them at the tail end of their careers. But Ronaldo was just incredible, as the video link shows no player I have ever seen before combined power, speed and close control quite like Ronaldo could do. What also sets him apart is how he was able to change his game, and still be an effective player, although not as spectacular, after his series of knee injuries robbed him of his explosive speed.

For a perspective on his career, look at his Wikipedia entry:

Ronaldo

Look at his goalscoring totals, everywhere but his last two clubs Milan and Corinthians, he scored at almost a goal a game clip, an amazing record in the modern game. And even with Milan and Corinthians he scored.

The best forward I have ever seen and somebody who will go down as one of the all time great players.

carioca, thanks for the tip on the music on the video link, you were right, go mute!

The video carioca posted is definitely worth viewing but he is right, mute it so you do not have to listen to the lousy soundtrack.

Ronaldo not only was a great goalscorer he also scored some great goals as can be seen on that video link.

It is a shame he battled injuries throughout much of his career, as great a player as he was, it makes you wonder how great he really could have been without such devastating injuries. The season he had with Barcelona in 1996-97 at only 20 years of age was the best individual season I have ever seen from a player, not Maradona, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Hugo Sanchez, Romario, Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi have in my eyes equaled what Ronaldo did that season.

I always wondered the same Merengue, as great as Ronaldo was you are left wondering how good he could have been if he had not suffered so many injuries? Sadly another wonderful forward who came just before him, Marco van Basten also was victim of so many injuries which ended his career prematurely.

I also read this quote today from Ronaldo at his retirement press conference which answered a question many had about his weight problems in recent years,

My favorite Ronaldo goal, the 1996-97 season vs Compostela:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qE774yQX6uQ

This shows the speed, balance and power he had. Also notice the crowd at Compostela appluading him after that goal.

I always loved that goal, thanks manzanares for producing it here. in his prime and before his knee injury I thought Ronaldo was practically unstoppable. As a few others noted he combined the power with speed, grace and tight control. To compare him with current players in their prime it was almost as if he had Didier Drogba's power, Cristiano Ronaldo's speed on the ball and Lio Messi's dribbling skills. He was a real joy to watch except of course when playing against Argentina! :)

That is not a bad comparison rosarino of his various attributes. Ronaldo was so hard to stop as not only did he have the power and speed everyone has discussed but with his feints he could get by a defender or as the first video shows, skip by a goalkeeper for a tap in. He was extraordinary, unfortunately injuries robbed us of seeing him reach his full potential but even then for a period from 1995-99 and 2002-2005 he was just an incredible player, a great forward.

Goodbye Ronaldo, I enjoyed watching your career. I will echo what others wrote and rate him the best forward I have seen play. I put him ahead of Romario and Van Basten in that category.

I have read various stories that while at PSV the thin Ronaldo was given some injections, possibly steroids, to strengthen himself and that these may have later contributed to his knee injury problems. That is pure speculation but what I do hope is now that he no longer is playing and does not have to worry about taking banned drugs, hopefully he can control his hyper thyroid problem and weight so that he can lead a healthy post career life.

I agree with the other posts here on Ronaldo's career, how he was the best forward I have seen and one you wonder how much even better he could have been if he was not plagued by those knee injuries.

So I will instead talk about the first ime I ever saw hm play when he came on as a sub for Brazil in a pre World Cup 1994 friendly versus Honduras in San Diego. That game brings back good memories for me as it was the last game I ever attended with my now deceased father and I recall telling him to look out for this 17 year old kid coming in as a sub. Several years later when we saw him playing with Barcelona my dad's eyes lit up as he said that was the kid we watched several years ago! Back in 1994, Ronaldo was often known as Ronaldinho (little Ronaldo) because of his age and because Brazil's 1994 World Cup team had a big centerback from Sao Paulo named Ronaldo who became known as Ronaldao (big Ronaldo). Brazil scored 8 that night in San Diego versus Honduras and while thrilled to see stars like Romario and Bebeto, it was the chance to see the young Ronaldo which thrilled me the most. 13 years later in the same stadium I also had the opportunity to watch a young Lionel Messi.

Speaking of Romario, I recall watching Brazil play in 1997 using the Ro-Ro attack, Romario and Ronaldo, Mario Zagalo stubbornly refused to use them together a year later at France 98 but the Ro-Ro tadem was as dangerous a set of forwards as i have ever seen.

What always amazed me about the pre injury Ronaldo was his acceleration, he would just explode on a quick sprint like an Olympic sprinter coming off the starting line and would leave defenders in his wake. And for such a tall man he really did have great close control. But as others noted he also had the ability to adjust his game as injuries robbed him of that acceleration. But even with Real Madrid or playing for Brazil in 2002 he had that timing which enable dhim to find open spaces even without the great speed. A one of a kind player and a definite aall time great.

Nice to read of your memories seeing a young Ronaldo play. It always is a pleasure watching a future star before they became well known.

I am still upset with Zagalo for not using those two together. Romario had an injury which kept him out of some pre World Cup training but he was recovered in plenty of time to have played in 1998 but Zagalo just refused to bring him in. It was a costly mistake as nobody would have stopped those two. Here is a video package of the Ro-Ro attack from 1997, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLWEF637naE

Even with Ronaldo's convulsive attack before the 1998 Final, a team with Romario in attack would have done well with or without Ronaldo. Put them together and they were unstoppable. Only Zagalo prevented that from happening! :angry:

I loved the Ro-Ro pairing at forward. It is true Romario was recovered before the Mundial in 1998 began but Zagalo used his injury as a pretext to exclude him from the squad. A shame because as the link shows Ronaldo and Romario linked up very well. In fact I do not think you will find a forward partner with which Ronaldo better linked with than Romario. You did not see Ronaldo passing the ball as much or as effectively as he did with Romario. Now Ronaldo teamed up well with Rivaldo on the national team and with Raul at Real Madrid but I still feel he and Romario in the late 1990s made the best pairing possible.

wrong thread...Delete post please ;)

I really enjoyed the videos of Ronaldo and the one of Ronaldo and Romario paired together. And thank you for the suggestion of turning down the sound on the first Ronaldo video! Good advise.

Ronaldo was a real joy to watch especially pre injury and when you come down to it that is the essence of this sport as a fan, watching and enjoying the sport, even if it does not involve your own club or national team. Watching Ronaldo run at a defence was pre enjoyment, unless of course he was doing that to your team's defence!

I was really struck by how well Ronaldo and Romario teamed up as I did not recall Ronaldo being known for his passing but clearly on that video the two of them did exchange some superb passes. They seemed to have brought out the inner playmaker in one another! :D

I do not intend to dispute the reasons given here of why Romario was left off of Brazil's 1998 team but for what it is worth this is what his Wikipedia page says on the issue,

Romário was left out of the 1998 World Cup squad. Medical exams had revealed that he had a muscular injury, and he received intensive treatment leading up to the tournament, but he did not recover completely and was dismissed the day of the deadline for the World Cup squad submissions

A shame as it would have been a real treat seeing Ronaldo and Romario together in 1998.

Ronaldo is one of the players I support the most, he was insane on the pitch. Easily one of the best players in the last 14 years and one of the best goalscorers in football.

In more recent news, Ronaldo is angry at some photographers who took some pictures of him smoking and drinking in his house at a celebration he had at his house about Anderson Silva's knock out UFC Middleweight Title defense with Vitor Belfort. Ronaldo is thinking about taking legal measures about the situation. Ronaldo said he has never been that bothered by photographers, but that these pictures bothered him because they were taken in Ronaldo's house, Roberto Carlos was also there.

I really had no idea Anderson Silva fought for 9ine and that Ronaldo was a co owner of theirs, no wonder he was wearing the Corinthians shirt during the UFC 126 weigh ins and during his UFC 126 after fight speech and support.

God bless.

BTW, did you read my post about Ronaldo & Anderson Silva??? I also believe the reason why Spyda Silva was talking about Ronaldo, was due to the fact that Belfort's nickname is The Phenom. Reminds you anyone else ;) I believe Spyda Silva wanted to give props to the Real Phenom & Timão. I think Bigfoot Silva is w/ 9ine as well. After he whooped on Fedor Emelianenko, Bigfoot was shouting, "Timão, Timão."

Yeah, I read it and you are not supposed to mention Fedor lost to Bigfoot, that's something that everyone should forget and not talk about, the Werdum loss is fine because it could have been considered a mistake by Fedor, but the Bigfoot loss was a total domination for the most part.

Here's some more Ronaldo news, he's in the 2014 World Cup committee.

God bless.

Ronaldo is an effective player, and the skill is too over. In addition, he is the first foreign player I heard.