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How Ronaldo’s brilliance left 5 great Brazilian strikers in the shadows

Published

3 years ago

September 23, 2023

Cristiano Ronaldo

How Ronaldo’s brilliance left 5 great Brazilian strikers in the shadows

In the decade that followed Brazil’s 1994 World Cup triumph, the Selecao boasted an unparalleled plethora of attacking talents, yet none shone as brightly as Ronaldo.

O Fenomeno was in a class of his own; a dizzying mix of speed, dribbling, feints and clinical finishing that put him among the beautiful game’s very best.

While he excelled for PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona and Inter Milan and Real Madrid, the fondest memories of Ronaldo are usually tinged in the familiar yellow of Brazil.

World Cup and Copa America titles, along with countless other individual accolades, put him up there with Pele as a Selecao icon.

For some, living alongside that kind greatness came easy – the likes of Romario, Bebeto, Rivaldo, Edmundo and Ronaldinho all shone alongside O Fenomeno.

It’s the players who never got to share the spotlight being celebrated here. World-class talents left forever waiting in the wings for Brazil, born a decade too early and condemned to an international legacy unbefitting of their incredible talents.

Giovane Elber

In 10 seasons – three with Stuttgart and seven at Bayern Munich – Giovane Elber carved out a reputation as one of the Bundesliga’s greatest marksmen.

Elber was a different kind of striker to Ronaldo but no less worthy; a forward equally adept at linking the play and finishing off attacking moves. A heady mix of Brazilian flair and German work ethic.

Brought to Europe by AC Milan, Elber left the Rossoneri without playing for the first team, going on to enjoy prolific spells with Grasshopper Zurich and Stuttgart.

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His best years came at Bayern, though, with the Brazilian contributing to a period of success that included four Bundesliga titles, three German Cups and the Champions League.

Club top scorer in six of his seven seasons at Bayern, Elber’s 133 goals in 260 appearances made him the Bundesliga’s all-time top foreign goalscorer until Claudio Pizarro took his crown.

Yet throughout this time, Elber remained on the fringes of the Brazil national team. Like Ronaldo, Elber was a teen prodigy, emerging from the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship, in which he scored four goals in six matches.

But in spite of this and his subsequent form in Germany, he had to wait until 1998 for a first senior call-up. His absence has long been attributed to his decision to play in Germany, with Brazil managers favouring players abroad drawn from Italy or Spain.

When he did get a chance, it came with a caveat: Luiz Felipe Scolari offered Elber the opportunity to replace the injured Ronaldo in Brazil’s squad for the 2001 Copa America in Colombia. Amid security concerns that had already seen Argentina withdraw entirely, Elber declined. Scolari refused to pick him again, ending any hopes he had of making the 2002 finals.

“The subject is closed,” Elber upon announcing his international retirement. “When the 2006 World Cup comes around, I will be 33 and I will not have the desire or the ability to play.”

He finished with seven goals in 15 games for Brazil.

Mario Jardel

One of Europe’s leading strikers in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the spectre of Ronaldo loomed large over Mario Jardel’s career.

Often inaccurately viewed as an out-and-out poacher, Jardel’s goalscoring repertoire was arguably more varied than even O Fenomeno’s. An exemplary finisher in the box, he was equally comfortable shooting from distance, while his bullet headers became something of a trademark.

Jardel also scored goals by the bucketload – 30 or more in each of his first six seasons in Europe – starting at Porto where he scored 166 goals in 169 appearances from 1997 to 2000. But it could have been even better.

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Linked with the likes of Inter Milan and Barcelona, Jardel never got the chance to follow in Ronaldo’s footsteps at either, twice snubbed and instead signed by Galatasaray and, a year later, Sporting Lisbon.

Jardel scored 34 times for Gala during a single-season stay before moving on to Sporting in 2001, where he fired the club to a first league title in almost 20 years, scoring 42 goals in 30 league games.

That should have been enough to see Jardel at the 2002 World Cup – particularly as Ronaldo managed just seven goals in 16 that season – but his card had already been marked by Scolari.

In the summer of 2001, Jardel accepted the invite turned down by Elber to play for Brazil in place of Ronaldo at the Copa America in Colombia. He endured a torrid time, failing to score as Brazil exited in the quarter-finals to Honduras, confirming Scolari’s belief his stats were inflated in the process.

Omitted from the 2002 squad in favour of lesser names happy to warm the bench while Ronaldo starred, Jardel’s career never recovered. He left Sporting a year later, embarking on an increasingly nomadic career as a pale, bloated imitation of his former self.

Sonny Anderson

How do you replace a player like Ronaldo? For Barcelona, the answer was Sonny Anderson. Or at least, that was how the fans and press saw it.

Anderson had spent three years in France prior to his arrival at Barcelona in 1997. An initial six-month spell with Marseille brought 16 goals in 20 games but it was AS Monaco that the Brazilian truly carved out his reputation, scoring 64 times in 112 games for the Principality club.

The Brazilian was so much more than a goalscorer though. “He could finish with his left and right. Hold the ball up, win it in the air and play passes. He could do the lot. And he did it at lightning pace,” his Monaco team-mate, John Collins, told the BBC.

A league title winner with Monaco in 1997, Anderson was also Ligue 1 Player of the Year and the breakout star in a team featuring Emmanuel Petit, Thierry Henry, and David Trezeguet. That was enough to see Barcelona fork out €17million for his services, but supporters were unconvinced.

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“It was a very difficult time because when I arrived, I cost more money than Ronaldo and the fans expected from me a similar performance,” Anderson told Goal.

“Ronaldo was a unique player and the fans didn’t know much about me because I played in France.”

Despite scoring 10 times in La Liga during a double-winning debut campaign Louis van Gaal, the Ronaldo comparisons continued, especially as O Fenomeno bagged 25 for Inter that same season.

Though another title followed, it wasn’t long before Anderson was on his way back to France with Lyon, having become fed up with life under Van Gaal at a club where he was forever in the shadow of another Brazilian who wasn’t even there.

It was a move that curtailed any hopes of an international career. One that amounted to just six caps and, in truth, only began in August 1997 – around the time Anderson was being dubbed Ronaldo’s replacement.

Marcio Amoroso

Tipped to reach the same heights at Ronaldo in his younger years, at one point Amoroso looked on course to do exactly that – only for fate to intervene.

Having impressed in his homeland with Guarani, the Brazilian arrived in Italy in 1997, a year prior to Ronaldo, and quickly set about showing why he was one of Brazil’s most highly-rated youngsters at the time with Udinese.

The 22-year-old Amoroso defied his age to bag 12 goals in the ultra-defensive Serie A. An intelligent, skilful attacker capable of playing as a traditional number nine or 10, Brazil manager Mario Zagallo was among Amoroso’s many admirers and may well have taken him to the 1998 World Cup had he not been injured.

A year later, a fully-fit Amoroso was up and running and, most significantly, outscoring Ronaldo in Serie A, with a return of 22 goals making him the division’s top scorer for the 1998-99 campaign, eight ahead of O Fenomeno.

Picked as part of Vanderlei Luxemburgo’s Brazil squad for the 1999 Copa America, Amoroso shone again, scoring four goals en route to the title, including the opener in Brazil’s 2-1 semi-final win over Mexico.

Part of an attacking quartet that included Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, he even won praise from the latter, who described him as “an animal” and “great to play with”. He could do no wrong.

It certainly seemed like that over the course of the 2001-02 campaign, with Amoroso making a flying start to life at new club Borussia Dortmund, following a £20million move, with a tally of 26 goals in 46 games helping the club win the Bundesliga. Amoroso finished as the top scorer in the process.

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Yet as the 2002 World Cup approached, a change of managers saw Amoroso out in the cold under Scolari. The Brazilian coach was unimpressed with European leagues outside of Italy or Spain and wasn’t one for changing his mind – even when Amoroso, fresh from scoring three times against AC MIlan in the UEFA Cup that season, told reporters: “The hat-trick is a message to Scolari.”

Omitted from the 23-man list, Amoroso’s later career was blighted by injury in an away similar to that of Ronaldo. But while O Fenomeno’s knack for timing saw him return at key moments for Brazil, his Copa America compatriot was less lucky.

Had Brazil lost the 2002 World Cup, then more may have been made of his omission. But, as the saying goes, history is written by the victors.

Giovanni

A precursor to Neymar among Santos fans, Giovanni Silva de Oliveira was handed the nickname “Messiah” among fans of the Brazilian club after a return of 37 goals in 36 games over two years.

Giovanni came up against a higher power when he joined Barcelona in 1996 though. Signed to primarily play as an attacking midfielder, he was equally effective in front of goal.

Classy, creative and boasting impressive technique on the ball, Giovanni might have stolen the show in that first season were it not for Ronaldo’s arrival.

Instead, he had to make do playing second fiddle as Barcelona’s second most exciting Brazilian prospect. There were occasional highlights along the way, with Giovanni scoring home and away against Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup Winners’ Cup and netting the winner against Real Madrid in the Copa Del Rey.

But Giovanni cut an increasingly peripheral figure as the season went on, used sparingly by Bobby Robson and forced to watch on as Ronaldo went from strength to strength. He scored 12 times in all competitions but was an unused sub in the European Cup Winners’ Cup final, watching on as you-know-who scored the winner.

With Robson moving upstairs and Ronaldo moving to Inter that summer, Giovanni must have thought he finally had a chance at living up to his Santos reputation. But he didn’t count on the disciplinarian approach of the incoming Louis van Gaal, a manager he claimed was “a Hitler for Brazilians”.

“He is arrogant, haughty and has a mental problem,” he told Folha. “He did not want Brazilians around him.

“He always said that we were not training well. Van Gaal has no idea of football and always comes with the same training sessions. He seems crazy.”

Giovanni soon departed for Olympiakos, where his all-action displays earned him the nickname The Wizard. But despite a fine career in Greece that included five league titles and some impressive goals, his star soon faded in Brazil.

Part of the Selecao squad for the 1997 Copa America and 1998 World Cup, he made little impact at either tournament and was not selected again. Ronaldo did considerably better.

He may have despised Van Gaal but part of The Wizard must have wished he could magic away Ronaldo.

How Ronaldo’s brilliance left 5 great Brazilian strikers in the shadows

Planet Football

Related Topics:Brazilian strikers Ronaldo

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Rivers United Players, Officials Escape Serious Harm in Road Accident

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Rivers United Players, Officials Escape Serious Harm in Road Accident

Players and officials of Rivers United were involved in a road accident on Thursday while traveling to Awka, ahead of their President’s Federation Cup Round of 16 encounter against Nasarawa United.

The incident occurred along the Obiri-Ikwerre Airport Road on the outskirts of Port Harcourt shortly after the team departed from its camp for the journey to Anambra State.

In an official statement released by the club, Rivers United confirmed that some players and team officials sustained minor injuries in the accident. However, the club assured supporters and the general public that no fatalities or life-threatening injuries were recorded.

According to the statement, all affected individuals received immediate medical attention and are currently in stable condition.

“The safety, health and well-being of our players and officials remain our utmost priority. We can confirm that some players and officials sustained minor injuries in the accident. Thankfully, there have been no fatalities or life-threatening injuries reported,” the club stated.

The accident comes just days after Rivers United booked their place in the Round of 16 of the President’s Federation Cup with an impressive 3-2 victory over Rangers International on Monday.

The Port Harcourt-based side is scheduled to face Nasarawa United in the Round of 16 tie in Awka on Saturday, although it remains unclear whether the accident will affect the team’s travel plans or preparations for the crucial fixture.

Football fans and stakeholders across the country have since expressed relief that no lives were lost in the incident, while wishing the injured players and officials a speedy recovery ahead of the highly anticipated Federation Cup clash.

The President’s Federation Cup remains one of Nigeria’s most prestigious domestic football competitions, with Rivers United among the leading contenders for this year’s title. As attention turns to Saturday’s encounter against Nasarawa United, supporters will be hoping the team can quickly recover from the unfortunate incident and focus on their pursuit of silverware.

Rivers United Players, Officials Escape Serious Harm in Road Accident

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World Cup 2026: FIFA Adds New Automated Offside Technology to End Delayed Flags

Published

9 hours ago

June 4, 2026

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World Cup 2026: FIFA Adds New Automated Offside Technology to End Delayed Flags

The delayed offside flag may soon become obsolete as Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has introduced groundbreaking new technology for the 2026 World Cup, implementing advanced semi-automated offside technology for video assistant referees (VAR) that enhances decision-making speed and allows assistant referees to raise the flag immediately instead of waiting for a play to develop.

FIFA will implement an improved version of the VAR system with semi-automatic offside technology, aiming to shorten decision-making time and reduce delays in assistant referees raising the offside flag. The breakthrough of this improvement is that the signal is transmitted directly to the assistant referee on the field instead of only being sent to the VAR room as before. When the AI system definitively identifies an offside play, the linesman will receive an audible “offside, offside” signal directly in their headset, with the entire process of analyzing, checking data, and confirming accuracy taking place within milliseconds.

An immediate audio notification will be dispatched to the assistant if a player is over 10cm offside. Earlier iterations of the technology tested at the Club World Cup and the Intercontinental Cup only alerted officials if a player was greater than 50cm offside. Johannes Holzmuller, FIFA’s Director of Innovation, said this technology has been tested over the past three years at FIFA youth tournaments, initially with a threshold of 50cm, before being narrowed down to 10cm once the system proved reliable. The official will remain in charge of when to raise the flag and stop play. They may keep the flag down if they suspect there has been a malfunction, but FIFA says a series of fail-safe measures are built into the technology to prevent errors. FIFA asserts that this mechanism is designed to virtually eliminate the possibility of the system sending false warnings in situations where there is no offside, only activating when sufficient data is available to verify the information.

Despite its sophistication, the technology has clear limitations. It will still be unable to pick out the closest offsides, and there are restrictions when players are on the ground or when several are too closely positioned. The system also only applies to offside situations based on position, not handling subjective assessments such as whether a player interfered in the situation. In close and complex offside situations with a difference of less than 10cm, or sensitive plays requiring subjective decisions, the VAR room will continue to be responsible for handling those calls.

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FIFA aims to alleviate some of the irritation experienced by fans and players while also minimizing injury risks caused by unnecessary gameplay when an offside call is imminent. The motivation for this technological upgrade was tragically underscored in May 2025, when Nottingham Forest forward Taiwo Awoniyi was put into an induced coma following a collision with a goalpost caused by the assistant’s delayed offside flag. This incident is widely considered one of the primary reasons that pushed FIFA to accelerate this project.

FIFA also announced that realistic, AI-driven 3D avatars of all players will be generated to enhance decision-making accuracy. This will involve producing a digital scan of every one of the 1,248 athletes in the 26-member rosters of the 48 teams. Every player will step into a chamber for scanning, a procedure that will take only 30 to 90 seconds and only needs to occur once during their pre-tournament photo session. Players stand with their arms slightly outstretched so the system can record their physical parameters with high accuracy. This system complements semi-automatic offside technology, using stadium cameras to track the ball and player positions 50 times per second. Sixteen cameras will be installed in every stadium—compared to 12 in Qatar—collecting around 150 million data points per game. Consequently, improved and more distinct offside animations will be implemented at the World Cup, helping television viewers understand the basis of the referee’s decision.

FIFA has also sanctioned the use of technology that can identify whether the ball exited the field prior to a goal being made. This change comes after the debate surrounding Japan’s winning goal against Spain in the 2022 World Cup, when unclear camera angles created confusion. A 3D animation will be developed, similar to goal-line technology, that can display the precise position of the ball. The chip embedded in the ball will show which player last made contact, allowing the VAR to verify whether a corner was the right call under new authorities. The Trionda ball, manufactured by Adidas, incorporates a 500Hz IMU motion sensor chip, allowing it to record data up to 500 times per second. Unlike the 2022 Al Rihla ball where the chip was located in the centre, the Trionda’s sensor is placed on the side. Many experts believe this change aims to help the ball maintain better balance and minimize the impact on its flight path. This technology helps referees accurately determine the point of contact—the moment a player makes contact with the ball—thereby assisting in making faster and more accurate offside decisions.

FIFA has additionally broadened Real-time 3D Recreation to enhance line-of-sight decisions for offsides, making them faster and more transparent. Two virtual feeds are accessible to the VAR and television audience, reflecting the views of each goalkeeper. This season, there were numerous ‘line-of-sight’ offside situations that raised doubts about whether the goalkeeper’s visibility was affected. This innovation aims to provide the VAR with an additional resource to make that choice accurately.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has framed these innovations as part of a broader commitment to leveraging technology for the benefit of the sport. “We are committed to ensuring that technological innovation benefits every player, team, and fan around the world, and contributes to the development of football—the greatest sport on the planet,” Infantino said in Las Vegas in January. The FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off on June 11, 2026, and runs through July 19, 2026, with matches hosted across 16 cities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. The tournament will feature 48 teams playing 104 matches—the largest World Cup in history.

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Real Madrid Reach €20m Agreement for Inter Milan Star Denzel Dumfries

Published

1 day ago

June 3, 2026

Trends Admin

Denzel Dumfries

Real Madrid Reach €20m Agreement for Inter Milan Star Denzel Dumfries

Real Madrid have moved a step closer to strengthening their squad for the new season after reportedly reaching an agreement to sign Inter Milan defender Denzel Dumfries in a deal worth €20 million.

The Spanish giants are expected to activate the Dutch international’s release clause, paving the way for one of the most notable transfers of the summer window. Transfer market expert Fabrizio Romano reported that an agreement has been reached, with the player keen on making the move to the Santiago Bernabéu.

The signing comes as Real Madrid continue to reshape their squad ahead of the 2026/27 campaign, with club officials viewing Dumfries as an experienced and versatile option capable of strengthening the right side of the team’s defence.

Since joining Inter Milan from PSV Eindhoven in 2021, Dumfries has established himself as one of the most effective attacking full-backs in European football. The 30-year-old has made 207 appearances for the Nerazzurri, scoring 27 goals and contributing numerous assists despite operating primarily in defensive roles.

His ability to play as a traditional right-back, wing-back and right-sided midfielder has made him a highly sought-after player in the transfer market. Real Madrid believe his pace, physical strength, attacking instincts and experience in top-level competitions will add significant value to the squad.

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Dumfries was a key figure for Inter Milan during a successful spell that saw the Italian side challenge for domestic honours and compete regularly in the UEFA Champions League. His performances for both club and country have enhanced his reputation as one of Europe’s most reliable players in his position.

Reports suggest several European clubs monitored the Netherlands international, but Real Madrid emerged as his preferred destination. The opportunity to play at the Santiago Bernabéu and compete for major trophies reportedly played a significant role in his decision.

The €20 million transfer fee is also being viewed as excellent business for Madrid, given Dumfries’ experience and proven track record at the highest level. With transfer fees continuing to rise across Europe, securing an established international defender at that price represents a relatively low-risk investment.

Meanwhile, Inter Milan are expected to begin the search for a replacement once the deal is finalized. Italian media reports indicate that Atalanta defender Marco Palacios is among the players being considered as the club prepares for life after Dumfries.

For Madrid, the move reflects the club’s continued strategy of blending experienced internationals with emerging talent as they seek to maintain their dominance in Spanish football and challenge for European honours.

If completed as expected, Dumfries would become one of Real Madrid’s first major acquisitions of the summer and could play an important role in the club’s plans for the upcoming season.