Ronaldo has retired.

[Yas786]

Such a shame when i heard about him retiring this morning...a truly awesome player who was simply out of this world...his goal scoring for both club and country were ridiculously good.

One of my all time fave players....was hoping that Brazil would have taken him along for last summers WC ie a sort of final farewell.

 

[Ripper]

When we had to pick a player to be when playing out, he was always the one we'd argue over. Amazing player, nobody in my lifetime has been able to do the things he could do.

 

[semi-pro waster]

A huge loss to the game, up there with the best that I've seen contemporaneously and who knows what he could have achieved if he hadn't had the injury/weight problems. Still his record wasn't too bad anyway.

 

[Robert1986]

He was just on eurosport talking about it.

 

[The Running Man]

Omg, that real Utd game was epic i remember it well.

Great hat trick, as someone said, the first and the third. Yes if barthez wasnt so small and better positionally maybe the first could have been stopped.

On the second though, how long did real have the ball, they were picking us to bits:/

Even RvN looks sharp here taking on a defender, and is that right.. his 39th of the season?!

Berba who?!

 

[Weebull]

 

[matt0r]

Its pretty damn harsh to say he let himself go. Chronic injury's and pain screw you up. Its likely to keep playing as long as he did and he was training very very little, kind of like King, to prevent pain/injury between games and to let his joints rest between games.

34 year old with his knee issues I'd be pretty sure he didn't let himself go but was just barely hanging in there till his body couldn't do it anymore.

ANyway, a proper legend, ridiculously good striker, power and physical strength combined with speed, but a superb touch and ability to go with it. Absolute shame his best years were ripped apart by injury, but says a lot about the guy he kept coming back after such big layoffs and such bad injuries.

Frankly its amazing he got to 34 before retiring.

Gotta agree with this, nearly lost his career then won another world cup and became all time top scorer. Just imagine what he would've been like with two good knees! Add to the fact that he not only played for the big 2 in spain but also inter and ac milan.

One of my fave players of all time. If any of you read the Tim Vickery BBC blog posts it sort of details what happened at Corinthians, especially how a lot of people didnt expect him to be able to play at all, then turned on him when he got fit (fat fair enough, but fit), rumours of roberto carlos getting death threats too. A sad state of affairs. He created a lot of wonderful moments in football. Reminds me of a time when you could get a good international game

 

[lolwithtim]

He was definitely a world class player. Shame that he is retiring because his body can't keep up. Not a great way to retire to be honest.

 

[Azza]

One of the greatest players ever. Such a shame he had his downfalls.

 

[Greenlizard0]

Remember growing up and seeing Ronaldo on tv, he still many years after his prime is the best striker I've ever seen.

 

[KNiVES]

He was definitely a world class player. Shame that he is retiring because his body can't keep up. Not a great way to retire to be honest.

Well, you could put it another way; that his mortal coil just can't keep up with the awesome. It's a fine way to retire in my opinion.

 

[dannyjo22]

At his peak, the best striker in the world, by far, and possibly the most complete that I've ever seen. Power, pace and skill in abundance..

Agreed, best I've ever seen. His record in Spain is amazing. When him and Raul played in the same team he made Raul look second rate.

Such a shame he never stayed injury free for longer. A player that could have ripped the premiership apart had he come here, with his power and pace.

 

[Hxc]

Probably the best out and out striker I've seen.

 

[Tummy]

I'll throw it out there and say that we've just seen one of the all time great Brasilian players retire.

 

[Tute]

Fantastic player. His record speaks for itself really.

Having said that, I thought the RM defending in that game was more laughable than ours. Talk about relying on your strikeforce to score more than your defence concedes.

 

[K1LLSW1TCH]

When I was growing up Ronaldo was the man, and imo he still is.

Loved the 'fro he was rocking but in his malteaser heyday he was the best striker I've ever seen.

 

[smiley1987]

He was the best player of the late 90's early 00's , i always loved to watch him play . He also holds the record for most goals scored by an Individual in the world cup . He has scored 15 according to wikipedia . A truely brilliant player and its a sad day for football .

 

[Dabbles]

I'll throw it out there and say that we've just seen one of the all time great Brasilian players retire.

I'll throw it out there and say that we've just seen one of the all time great football players retire.

 

[Tummy]

I'll throw it out there and say that we've just seen one of the all time great football players retire.

Quite a few of which are from Brasil

I agree with you though, I think he was almost the complete modern forward. Don't think we'll see another like him for a while.

 

[Dabbles]

Quite a few of which are from Brasil

I agree with you though, I think he was almost the complete modern forward. Don't think we'll see another like him for a while.

He was a very special player, that's for sure. It's a shame for him (and everyone else in many ways!) about his knee injury. He would almost certainly have been the best player in the world, ever, by miles.

He has battled through his injuries to be fair to him. I'm sure his retirement took some long hard thought! He seemed to love the beautiful game.

One of my favourite players.