- Seasons at the club: 1996-1997

- Shirt Number: 9

- Games played: 51

- Goals scored: 48

- Titles:

1 Cup Winners Cup (1996/97)
1 Copa del Rey (1996/97)
1 Spanish Super Cup (1996/97)
The Pichichi Trophy: (1997)

Clubs:

Cruzeiro (Brazil) 1993-1994
PSV Eindhoven (Holland) 1994-1996
FC Barcelona 1996-1997
Inter Milan (Italy) 1997-2002
Real Madrid 2002-2007
AC Milán (Italy) 2007-2008
Corinthians (Brazil) 2008

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1976, Ronaldo joined Barça in 1996 from PSV Eindhoven, as an outstandingly promising young striker. FC Barcelona paid PSV 2500 million pesetas, a record of the time until it was surpassed by the transfer of Shearer to Newcastle in the season 1996 - 1997, playing in their ranks quickly and winning his first international prize, the Fifa World Player award. He was only at the club for one season, but certainly proved his worth, scoring 48 goals in 51 games, the kind of stats you rarely see in the modern game.

The ‘Phenomenon’ was an uncommonly burly player, with sublime skills, a powerful sprint and a fantastic finish. In the 1996-97 season, under Bobby Robson, he helped Barça to a Cup Winners Cup, the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, and the goals he scored in Compostela and at the Camp Nou against Valencia were nothing short of sheer brilliance. He also won La Liga top scorer award in 1997 with 34 goals and as of 2008, Ronaldo is the last player to score more than 30 goals in one season in the Spanish La Liga.

At only 20 years of age, he looked destined for big things at Barça, but an unfortunate series of episodes involving the Board of Directors and his own agents led to him leaving for Inter Milan. At the end of the season, following tough negotiations with FC Barcelona president Josep Lluis Nunez on the renewal of his contract, Ronaldo decided to accept the offer from Inter Milan, who paid FC Barcelona 4,000 million pesetas, which was the termination clause of the contract for Ronaldo.