Ronaldo Scored 88 Of His Career Goals By Rounding The Goalkeeper

Ronaldo Nazario scored 88 of his goals by sitting the goalkeeper down and rounding them.

The Brazilian forward scored 414 goals in 616 appearances for club and country throughout his career.

One of his greatest talents was the way he could glide past goalkeepers and that's shown in this ridiculous stat.

88 of his 414 goals involved rounding the goalkeeper and tapping into an empty net, which is a staggering 21%.

It's an astonishing feat for one of the world's greatest strikers.

Often dubbed as 'R9', the former Real Madrid man won a slew of trophies in his career including two World Cup's with Brazil.

He also represented some of the world's biggest clubs including Inter Milan and Barcelona.

What allowed him so many chances at an open net was his close control when one on one with the keeper.

Ronaldo was unpredictable in his movements and it made it hard to judge which way he was going.

Check out some more footage of him rounding helpless goalkeepers below.

The forward was nicknamed 'Fenomeno' in his playing days and it isn't hard to see why.

By the age of 23, he had scored over 200 goals for club and country, breaking the world transfer record twice.

Unfortunately, he suffered a catalogue of serious knee injuries in what many would consider a footballers prime years.

Despite his injury woes, many people speak so highly of R9, including Jose Mourinho, who believes he is the best player he's ever seen.

"Ronaldo, El Fenomeno, Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi have had longer careers, they have remained at the top every day for 15 years." he said.

"However, if we are talking strictly about talent and skill, nobody surpasses Ronaldo [Nazario].

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"When he was at Barcelona with Bobby Robson, I realised that he was the best player I'd ever seen take to the field.

"Injuries killed a career that could have been even more incredible, but the talent that that 19-year-old boy had was something incredible.

"In 1997, Barcelona played against PSG in Rotterdam and Ronaldo's goal, 1-0. Awesome."

It's fair to say not many strikers in the modern game possess the talent that 'R9' did.

Topics: Football News, Football, Goals, Ronaldo

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

@DanMarland_