Ronaldo retires from professional football

SAO PAULO: Persistent Injury woes were the main reason the legend from Brazil has called it a day

The icon of modern football, the man who conquered every frontier in professional football has finally bowed out of the game. His career was a huge success but was also marred with injuries and disappointments. Highlight of his career was when he helped Brazil win 2002 World Cup title through his incredible mastery over goal scoring. He has won ‘FIFA World Player of the Year’ award on three occasions. He was twice named European Footballer of the Year, in 1997 and 2002.

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima announced his retirement on Monday at the age of 34 years. A tearful Ronaldo said, “I’m stopping my career as a professional footballer, it’s been a beautiful, emotional, marvelous career. These last two years, I’ve had a long series of injuries, from one side to the other, one leg to the other, one muscle to the other. The pain pushed me to think about the end of my career.”

He was also suffering from hypothyroidism for which he had to take hormone therapy which is banned as it is considered part of doping. That was the reason he was gaining weight and was having difficulty in maintaining fitness level required for professional football.

His career was highly successful at both club and international levels. He is considered one of the greatest players of all time. Nick-named ‘El Fenomeno’ (The Phenomenon), he represented Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and AC Milan, and Brazil.

He scored 62 goals in 97 appearances for Brazil. He was part of the Samba team which won the world cup in 1994 but then, as a 17 years old, he did not play a game. Then in 1998 he led his team to the final but was not initially included in the final against France as he had a mysterious epileptic fit the night before the match. Eventually he was included in the playing eleven but could not produce his natural game resulting in Brazil losing the match 3-0. He was devastated on not being able to help his team lift the trophy.

He paid back to his team by leading the attack with record number of goals to help win the title in 2002. He scored both the goals in the final against Germany. He took his World Cup tally to 15 goals, a new record beating Gerd Mueller, at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

An injury to his knee while playing for AC Milan ended his club career in Europe in 2008. Ronaldo who started his career with Cruzeiro, had to deal with many injuries during his career but the knee problem continued to trouble him in his last days of professional football. He was currently playing for local team Corinthians.

The Football fans will never forget Ronaldo for his genius art of scoring goals against the best of the best.