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Tearful Ronaldo announces retirement from football

(Agencies/chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2011-02-15 11:33

Inter Milan careers

Inter Milan's Ronaldo is carried on a stretcher after suffering an injury to his knee during their Italian Cup final first leg against Lazio at Rome's Olympic stadium in this April 13, 2000 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Ronaldo's career was marked by his goals just as it was by his injuries, which kept him sidelined for nearly three years in total.

He tore up his right knee with Inter Milan in 1999 and needed surgery, and a year later he twisted the same knee on the day he was returning to action and had to be sidelined for several months again after another surgery. The third injury came with AC Milan in 2008, forcing another surgery and another long layoff.

"He played past injuries what would have made many other players quit," said 30-year-old Hamilton Pereira Felix, a Rio de Janeiro doorman glued to the television waiting to hear Ronaldo's announcement. "He was a warrior. But he couldn't recover anymore. It was his time."

Brazilian Internazionale Milan striker Ronaldo celebrates a goal with Paulo Sousa during an Italian Serie A soccer match in Rome in this April 11, 1998 file photo. [Photo/Agencies]

Ronaldo began his professional career with Cruzeiro in 1993 as a 16-year-old, and it didn't take long for him to start stunning fans across Brazil. He moved to PSV Eindhoven that same year, becoming the club's top scorer and earning a transfer to Barcelona in 1996.

He quickly became an idol at the Spanish club, scoring 34 goals in 37 matches in the Spanish league and helping the club win the Copa del Rey.

A year later he signed with Inter Milan, winning the 1998 UEFA Cup and earning the nickname "The Phenomenon."

He moved to Real Madrid in 2002, and is one of the few players to become an idol for fans of both Spanish powerhouses. He helped Real Madrid win the Spanish league in 2003 and 2007. After that season he joined AC Milan, but the third injury in his knee cut short his stay at the Italian club.

Ronaldo is already a goodwill ambassador for the United Nation's Development Program, and he was key for the organization of the "Game for Peace" in Haiti in 2004, when the Brazilians visited the country devastated by gang wars.