Why I love Ronaldo (not that one)

marvelbet369.com's Spanish football correspondent Lee Roden explains why the original Ronaldo holds a special place in his football affections…

Aside from being one of the greatest ever number nines, for me, legendary Brazil forward Ronaldo serves as a barometer in establishing just how much someone knows about football. If he is referred to simply as ‘Ronaldo’, with no need to differentiate from a certain Portuguese pretender who could only dream of lacing his boots, then we’re on to a winner. If, however, the term used to describe the two time Ballon d’Or Winner is ‘fat Ronaldo’, then we’re going to have problems.

My impression, admittedly founded almost entirely on anecdote, is that the younger generation of football fans (dare I say it, the YouTube generation) do not appreciate Ronaldo in the way he deserves. From observers of a certain age group, I’ve noticed that scoffing is more often than not the common reaction when daring to mention him in the same breath as Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo on Twitter. Perhaps that can be explained by the time period in which he really excelled as a talent – the mid '90s – just before Nike truly mastered their ubiquitous promotional adverts, that he would later feature in when slightly past his best, and long before video highlights were made readily available on the internet. Long before most people had access to the Internet, even.

At his brief, incredible peak, he was as good as Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo in my eyes. Evidently, the 1996/97 season with Barcelona was the one in which Il Fenomeno established himself as the planet's finest player. A record 47 goals in 49 appearances is still astonishing, though it isn’t the number of goals he scored, but the way he put them in the back of the net that made him so special in that period. Unfathomably strong on the ball, he would shrug off one, two, or even three opponents for fun, with the kind of close control made possible by the dose of talent only handed out once in a generation. Standing at six feet tall, Ronaldo didn’t have the low centre of gravity someone like Lionel Messi has, yet his dribbling style was incredible as he could manipulate the ball at will and move it half a second quicker than everyone else on the pitch.

Prefer the pace and power associated with his namesake Cristiano? Well, he also had that. An impeccable first touch, great burst of speed on the ground and the strength of an ox meant that if the artistry wasn’t working, he could bludgeon you to death, too.

Then there was his emphatic finishing outside and inside the box. Whether he was clearing out a couple of defenders, or being pulled off balance, Ronaldo had a habit of putting the ball just beyond the keeper, as if teasing his opponent with just how inch-perfect his shooting was. Another favourite was to dummy, then round the keeper and following it up by touching the ball into the net while taking one last look back to rub it in. The guy was unstoppable. The cliché ‘unplayable’ is rarely applicable, but in this case, it’s deserved.

That explosive period was all too brief, as knee injuries gradually robbed him of half a yard of pace, and by the time he returned to Spain in 2002 this time to don the white of Real, the Brazilian found his body was not quite capable of doing the things it used to on a regular basis. Yet Ronaldo possessed such a wide variety of qualities that against the odds he managed to reinvent himself as a player and continue to play at the very top of the game. Dribbling from his own half and into the opposition’s became less common and instead his energy was reserved for a brief burst of speed in the final third. More often than not in the latter days, his best work came in the box, with his unbelievable technique and ability to pause proving particularly useful in creating space in a congested penalty area, and his first touch and timing combining to flummox defenders.

Even in his final years as a player, when he was considered ‘past it’ by the masses, I would take a weekly glance to see how he was doing back in Brazil with Corinthians. His 23 goals in 38 games with them in his first season back home is nothing to be scoffed at, particularly considering the toll injury and weight problems had taken on his body by that point. One notable goal for Corinthians saw him roll back the years when he managed to out-sprint an opposition defender before applying the finishing touch. Perhaps it was a final nostalgic nod to his '90s days, aware that retirement was imminent.

For me, above all of the countless medals, jaw dropping highlight reels and eulogies from team-mates, Ronaldo’s greatest achievement is that he was two entirely different, truly world class players across two different decades. His early, energetic, Barcelona and Inter incarnation contrasts perfectly with the latter day Real Madrid forward and the man who set the World Cup scoring record in 2006. Yet both players were in the elite and feared by the toughest of opponents. Can any contemporary footballer really claim to have completely reinvented their game and still continue to be a force at the highest level? There are few, if any. That’s why I love Ronaldo.

How does the Brazilian Ronaldo rank in comparison to the all-time greats? Let us know below...