Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima (pronounced born September 18, 1976 in Rio de Janeiro), generally referred to simply as Ronaldo, is a Brazilian professional footballer.Having begun his career at Brazilian side Cruzeiro, Ronaldo signed with PSV Eindhoven in 1994, and after that he had memorable tenures with FC Barcelona, Internazionale, and Real Madrid prior to joining Milan.A member of the Brazilian national team, Ronaldo has played over 100 international matches, and was part of the Brazilian squads that won the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.
He is the highest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup with 15 goals, having surpassed Gerd Müller's previous record of 14 at the 2006 tournament.Ronaldo has won three FIFA World Player of the Year awards (1996, 1997, 2002) and is one of two men to have won the award three times, along former Real Madrid teammate Zinedine Zidane. Ronaldo has been nicknamed "The Phenomenon" (Portuguese: O Fenômeno, Spanish: El Fenómeno). Pelé named him one of the 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004. In 2007 France Football named him in their best starting 11 of all time.In April 1999, Ronaldo married female Brazilian footballer Milene Domingues after he saw her playing on television and proposed to her.
The marriage lasted four years and ended in divorce. The couple had a son, Ronald (born 2000). Ronaldo revealed in an interview: "My wife and I eat a lot at McDonald's so we chose Ronald." In 2005, Ronaldo got engaged to Brazilian model and MTV VJ Daniela Cicarelli, who became pregnant but suffered a miscarriage; their relationship lasted 3 months after their engagement.
He ended his relationship with Brazilian supermodel Raica Oliveira in December 2006. Writer Andrew Downie asserted a correlation between Ronaldo's personal life and performance on the pitch, noting that his most prolific periods of goalscoring have coincided with the times when he was happily married.In 2005, Ronaldo became co-owner of A1 Team Brazil, alongside Brazilian motorsports legend Emerson Fittipaldi.
The team participates in the A1 Grand Prix series, with Nelson Piquet, Jr.Tony Kanaan and João Paulo Oliveira as drivers for the debut season.On April 29, 2008, it was alleged that Ronaldo, who had returned to Brazil to continue his injury rehabilitation, had employed the company of three transvestite prostitutes in a Rio de Janeiro motel. Police told a news conference they were also looking into an accusation by the player that one of the three transvestites tried to extort 50,000 reais in exchange for not telling the media about the incident.
