At the age of 12 Ronaldo started playing for an organized youth club called Tennis Club Valqueire. From then onwards he started playing many youth tournaments. Seeing his performance in the tournaments a club called Cruzeiro di Belo Horizonte hired him and Ronaldo started playing for that club. His talent and hard work got him a place in the Brazil's senior team at a very young age of 17. He was also selected for the world cup squad. Since he was very young when he was selected for the 1994 World Cup, Ronaldo didn't get an opportunity to play in that World Cup. He was kept as a substitute and Ronaldo saw his team win the World Cup from the benches. His international appearance in the World Cup at that very young age attracted the European club PSV Eindhoven. Playing for that club Ronaldo became the top scorer of the Dutch league. He was then signed by Spanish giant FC Barcelona. With them, he scored many spectacular goals.

1998 was not a good year for Ronaldo. He led his team to the World Cup finals, but failed to perform in the decisive match and Brazil went on to win the Silver that World Cup. By the end of 1998, he had a serious knee injury and missed almost the entire season of 2000/2001. After he recovered from the injury, the Italian giant Real Madrid signed him and Ronaldo was able to regain his lost form as a striking player for Real Madrid. Ronaldo was the FIFA World Player of the Year for 1996. He was also awarded the 1997 - European Footballer of the Year, 1997- FIFA World Player of the Year. Ronaldo was declared the European Player of the Year for 2002. Again for the 3rd time Ronaldo won the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2002. He also won the Golden Boot Award in the World Cup of 2002 with 8 goals.