At 31, there are very very few people who can claim to have a trophy cabinet anywhere near as attractive as Ronaldo. An absolute striker, totally complete and technically brilliant.

The Brazilian started his first game in over 6 months and it was a great moment for world football as he had a formidable support structure around him namely Kaka and bright prospect Alex Pato who at 18 is setting the world alight after making his first full apearance. The trio have been aptly dubbed Ka-Pa-Ro and teams should take notice of the Brazillian trio.

Sporting a new mini afro and much trimmer physique, it was a long awaited return from injury for Ronaldo who has also endured plenty of speculation over his future. That speculation is however minuscule when you consider the amount of people that have written him off since the 2006 world cup. Horrible things have been said about him and like so many times before he let his football do the talking!

AC Milan had been unable to find a home win all season. Sorry I feel I need to repeat the words ‘all’ and ’season’ and while I am not saying that Ronaldo single handedly won them their first home game, I feel that his role was nothing short of pivotal. Alex Pato could not have chosen a better strike partner for his debut, Kaka finally had a striker capable of scoring more than one type of goal (Inzaghi, Gillardino) and Ronaldo not only scored 2 he also set Kaka up for his cracker.

Along with his 7 goals (6 of them absolute crackers) in a very limited amount of game time last season, Ronaldo is starting to show the kind of return that has made him the man he is today.

I am not necessarily saying that Ronaldo currently at 31 will be part of the Brazilian strike force in 2010…… but maybe I am!

Ronaldo and his ever long list of awards:

Country

• FIFA World Cup
  • All-Time World Cup Goalscorer - 15 Goals in 19 games in 3 World Cups
  • 2006 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer (tied) - 3 goals and 1 assist
  • 2002 Golden Boot - Top scorer - 8 goals
  • 2002 Silver Ball - Second best player
  • 2002 Winner
  • 1998 Golden Ball - Best player
  • 1998 Bronze Boot - Third highest scorer - 4 goals 4 assists
  • 1998 Runner-up
  • 1994 Winner
• Confederations Cup: 1997
• Copa América: 1997, 1999
• Olympic Games: 1996 (3rd Place)

Club

Cruzeiro

• Brazilian Cup:1993

PSV Eindhoven

• Dutch Cup: 1996

FC Barcelona

• Cup Winners’ Cup: 1997
• Spanish Super Cup: 1996

Internazionale

• UEFA Cup: 1998

Real Madrid

• Intercontinental Cup: 2002
• La Liga - Primera División champions: 2002/2003
• Spanish Super Cup: 2003

Individual

• FIFA World Player of the Year: 1996 (youngest winner), 1997, 2002
• World Soccer Player of the Year: 1996 (youngest winner), 1997, 2002
• European Footballer of the Year (Ballon d’Or): 1997 (youngest winner), 2002
• Onze d’Or: 1997, 2002
• UEFA Most Valuable Player - 1998
• UEFA Club Football Awards: Best Forward - 1998
• FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1998, 2002
• European Golden Boot: 1997
• Copa América 1999: Top Scorer
• Spanish League Top Scorer: 1996-1997, 2003-2004
• Dutch League Top Scorer: 1994-1995
• Intercontinental Cup MVP: 2002
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality: 2002
• GoldenFoot Award: 2006