Bye Ronaldo

Ronaldo retired this past week. The real Ronaldo. The Ronaldo who currently holds the record for most World Cup goals, the Ronaldo who starred for PSV Eindhoven, FC Barcelona, Inter Milan, A.C. Milan, Corinthians and unfortunately the evil Real Madrid.

I hold a special tie in my memories with Ronaldo. I was living in Barcelona the one and only year he played for the blaugrana. It was a flukey thing that I happened to be in Catalunya during the 1996-1997 futbol season to see the greatest individual season in history. Ronaldo was only 19 years old and destroyed all the competition in Spain. La Liga was the perfect stage for his type of skills and Barca the perfect team.

But his greedy agents orchestrated a transfer and Ronaldo, crying when the manipulation finally came to light, was gone to Italy. He blew out his knee three times. He was still a great player but never quite the player he was that one extra-ordinary year in Camp Nou.

I was extremely fortunate to see him play in person. I saw him score a hat trick against the reigning League champions Atletico Madrid. Barca came back from a 0-3 deficit to shockingly win 5-4. I never been in a more electric atmosphere. 90,000 fans experiencing true collective effervescence.

Goodbye Ronaldo. You were one of the greatest. Every time I remember you I remember my own special year in Catalunya.

Video: This video is one of the most stunning goals of all time versus Compostela. They played this on the news over and over and over again for a week after it happened.