After getting selected as the best centre-forward in football history, Ronaldo Nazario revealed who were his idols when he was growing up.
We don’t have too many players who can compete against Brazilian Ronaldo for the spot as the best striker in football history. However, he does have a good idea of who could’ve been selected instead of him. It’s a player he always admired when he was growing up and he had time to watch play on television. We are talking about Marco van Basten, who is one of the few strikers who won three Ballon d’Or trophies in his career.
Ronaldo himself only got to lift two of those trophies and he had the Dutch striker as his biggest role model. Although there were other great players he followed when he was growing up, Ronaldo loved what Van Basten did inside the box. In many ways, the young Brazilian wanted to copy his every move.
Ronaldo’s many idols growing up.
During an exclusive interview on France Football, Ronaldo Nazario spoke about the many great players he idolized but one stands out from the rest: “Marco Van Basten for sure. From a very young age I watched Italian football and paid special attention to this player. Maradona and Cruyff, too. And Zico, of course, because he played for Flamengo and I was a fan of that team. I tried to take something from all of them and ultimately I can say that I am proud of the career I have had.
“Sometimes I played as a second striker, but I always saw myself up top in the centre. It was like that. Maybe I could have played in the ‘10’ position, but I always preferred to be close to the box, where I knew I was the most dangerous. I was so in love with my position as a number 9.”
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