Brazil Legend Ronaldo Set to Retire Today

Brazilian soccer legend Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, simply known as Ronaldo, is set to retire today, Feb 14th, 2011.

In the late 1990s and early 2000, he was one of the most prolific scorers in the world. He has helped his country to win twice the World Cup trophies and remains to be the tournament’s all-time top scorer with fifteen goals. He won his first Ballon d’Or at only 21 years old and again 5 years later. He has won the FIFA Player of the Year award three times (1996, 1997, and 2002) and remains to be one of only 2 football player to have achieved that, the other one being Zinedine Zidane. After 18 years of wearing a professional soccer sports wear, he will finally take it off. His retirement ends 18 years of stellar performance in a sport where he is considered by experts to be one of the greatest players.

Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper reported:

"I can't take any more, I wanted to continue, but I can't do it any more. I think of an action, but I can't do it the way I want to. It's time. It's the body that's hurting me. The head wants to go on, but the body can't take any more."

In 2010, Ronaldo already announced that he will be retiring in 2011 but many claims it might have been pushed forward because of the succession of injuries and the early disappointing elimination of Corinthians from Latin America’s most prestigious competition, Copa Libertadores. Fans and supporters of Corinthians blame the players, especially Ronaldo, and the violence made him consider putting an end to his career earlier than the end of the year as planned.

Ronaldo may have been out of shape these days add to the fact that most of players these days are getting younger and younger but he certainly wore his teams’ sports wear proudly. And made the team proud he was wearing their soccer home and away team uniforms. His spectacular career as a striker spans 18 years in great football clubs which includes PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Inter, Real Madrid and AC Milan, with the last 2 years spent with the Corinthians.