Ronaldo da Lima(R-9) till date the best and greatest striker ever in the history of football. “O fenomeno” goals scoring skills is one of the best we have even seen.

There’s a very good reason why he’s referred to as the real Ronaldo.

This is because be is the one and only Ronaldo- others are copycats.

Ronaldinho- whose real name is Ronaldo de Assis- had to change his name to Ronaldinho (a Brazilian street way of saying the Little Ronaldo).

Ronaldinho knew he can’t use the same name- Ronaldo as long as the real Ronaldo (R-9) was playing football.

Even CR7 had to put Cristiano in his name and branded himself CR7 to still be differentiated from the real Ronaldo.

José Mourinho even joked about the real Ronaldo when he was misunderstood last year, but this year, he came out some weeks ago to say Ronaldo of Brazil is still the authentic GOAT(his opinion though).

Messi also gave an interview recently stating Ronaldo is the greatest striker he has ever seen ( but you may have to read the article to find out he was referring to the Brazilian and not the Portuguese)

_______________

Ronaldo da Lima 1996/97 season in Barcelona was one of the best season any single individual had ever had in club football history.

His goals, dribbles, speed, creativity and running pass defenders were so sublime.

That goal that he ran pass 5 defenders with such speed and still scored got everyone awed at the stadium and those watching at the home- the then coach Bobby Robson was so astonished that he said that he hadn’t seen anything like that in football, ever.

Just as we praise CR7 over Messi for excelling in 3 different leagues/clubs, The Real Ronaldo did his magic everywhere he went.

Be it in Dutch Eredivise with PSV Eindhoven, at Camp Nou with Barcelona, at Inter Milan, and finally back to la Liga with Real Madrid to seal his legendary status with los Galacticos — he was magnificent.

It was another Galactico legend Zinedine Zidane that stopped him twice (1998 and 2006) from winning 4 consecutive FIFA World Cup trophies- though the ‘98 final was due to the brief morning seizures.

Pele would have renounced the crown and given him the King title if Zidane had never played for France- but such is football.

His only Achilles’ heel was the UCL trophy which unfortunately he never won.

Another trophy that eluded him (though not so important) was the Atlanta Olympics football 1996 Gold medal- which he came close to winning but was stopped by Nigerian Jay Jay Okocha and Kanu Nwankwo in the semifinals.

Nigeria went on to win the first African gold medal in Olympics football, though Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or that year – 1996.

Conclusion:

Cristiano Ronaldo can only brag with 5 UCL trophy above the Real Ronaldo, but that is not enough.

The Real Ronaldo is not only better than Cristiano Ronaldo but is among the 3 best ever in world football- only surpassed a little by Pele & Maradona.