Monday, February 14, 2011

Farewell, Ronaldo

Ronaldo, one of Brazil's and the world's greatest ever football players, has announced his retirement at the age of 34. Hard to believe he is so young, as he seems to have been around forever, but he began his professional career at the age of just 16 and was knocking in goals for PSV Eindhoven as a 17-year-old. Just in case anyone has forgotten the level of his achievement, here are a few figures, courtesy of the BBC:

Cruzeiro 1993-94 - 45 games, 41 goals
PSV Eindhoven 1994-96 - 58 games, 54 goals
Barcelona 1996-97 - 49 games, 47 goals
Inter Milan 1997-2002 - 99 games, 59 goals
Real Madrid 2002-07 - 164 games, 98 goals
AC Milan 2007-08 - 20 games, 9 goals
Corinthians 2009-11 - 31 games, 18 goals
Total - 466 games, 326 goals

Add to that his international career with Brazil, where he scored 62 goals in 97 appearances, and shares the record with Gerd Muller for scoring the greatest number of World Cup goals (15).

And here are a few of his goals:

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