It is a terrible shame that the weight issues that plagued the striker in his later years have come to define the most electrifying goal-scorer the game has ever seen.
In December 1992, San Cristovao coach Roberto Gaglianone told the press that the 16-year-old youth team striker that had just left the club for Cruzeiro was going to be Brazil's next No. 9.
"'He's going to play in the 1998 World Cup,'" he declared. "They asked me his name and I said, 'Ronaldo.'" It was a name that would come to terrify defenders everyone. Even the most accomplished of center halves would be left bamboozled by the Brazilian's brilliance.