Brazilian legend Ronaldo Nazario has nominated Lionel Messi as the best player in the modern football era, and some of the men who had a close encounter with the prolific striker can only agree that no one can equal what Ronaldo had achieved but the Argentine. Messi moves with great speed on the pitch, and as Ronaldo used to be.
Oscar Garcia and Abelardo Fernandez were at Camp Nou when Ronaldo signed up with the Catalans. And when the football great played for Real Madrid, he had his good friend and Brazil teammate Roberto Carlos close by.
It was the time that Real had on the roster high-profile players such as Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham, and the team was described by Marca as the most expensive Galactico squad put together at the Bernabeu side.
According to Carlos, Ronaldo's five-year spell with Los Blancos marked his domination, and he was regarded then as the top goalscorer in his time. The former Brazil international had to compete with a number of giant names during his time, but he climbed to the top, winning two Ballon d'Or and the same number of World Cup titles.
The now-retired striker was unstoppable then, and Carlos said during Ronaldo's peak, the only way to keep him from scoring was to deny him the ball.
Fernandez recalled that Ronaldo's La Liga days were indeed the best years of the Brazilian, who had a short stay in Catalonia coming from PSV, but the football legend made his mark. Ronaldo appeared in 37 games for Barca and registered 34 goals.
Those numbers were solid indicators of the man's spectacular form and his sheer power in clearing the net, according to Fernandez.
Goal noted in a related report that the Brazilian striker's stint with Barcelona only lasted for a season, but that stretch of a campaign introduced Ronaldo to the international world. It was widely regarded as the best year of the attacker, in which his total goals amounted to 47, adding up his appearances in all competitions.
Garcia said he had played with many top and competitive players, but the time with Ronaldo at Barcelona was hard to forget. That experience convinced him the goalscorer is likely one of the best ever, perhaps easily occupying his Top 3 list, Garcia added.
The most incredible thing about Ronaldo was the speed that he mustered while driving the ball to the net.
According to Garcia, he was resigned to the fact that he would never see somebody like Ronaldo, but then Messi broke to the scene.
"Until the arrival of Messi, I hadn't seen a player who drove with the ball at that speed ... I have only seen him and Messi do that," declared Ronaldo's former teammate.
