Player Duels: Romario V Ronaldo

Ladies and Gentlemen, Barney Corkhill's Player Duels is back! After a short break, the series which pits two players against each other and asks the readers to decide who was best returns.

This time it is two Brazilian legends, and two of the greatest strikers of all time: Romario and Ronaldo.

Both have fantastic goalscoring records in their careers, and both have been the most feared strikers in the world on more than one occasion. But who was better?

Romario

In his 23 year career, Romario has played for 16 clubs, including four spells at Vasco da Gama, and three at Flamengo. His goalscoring record is almost unparalleled, and many ex-professionals have stated that he is the best in the penalty area of all time.

As a goalscorer, there have been few better. He, rather dubiously, claimed his 1000th goal on May 20th 2007 from the penalty spot. If you count his Brazil goals (56 goals in 74 caps), plus his Olympic, youth and friendly goals, which he does, his overall career statistics stand at 1002 goals in 1256 games.

He has also won a World Cup in 1994, been top scorer 27 times in 12 competitions, and won FIFA World Player of the Year.

Ronaldo

A player who drew many comparisons between himself and Romario, and even Pele, Ronaldo was the top striker in the world throughout the late nineties and early noughties. Another phenomenal goalscorer, no-one has scored more World Cup goals than Ronaldo.

He is one of the few players to have played for both Inter Milan and AC Milan, and also both Barcelona and Real Madrid. For Brazil, Ronaldo has scored 67 times in 104 appearances, and his overall club career stats are 276 goals in 389 games.

Ronaldo won the World Cup in 2002, the Ballon d'Or twice, 1997, when he became the youngest ever winner of it, and 2002, and the FIFA World Player of the year three times, something only Zinedine Zidane has matched, in 1996 (again the youngest ever winner), 1997 and 2002.

So there you have it! Two great players, but who was best? In the battle between two of the greats of modern day football, who will you choose—Romario or Ronaldo?

Click here to see more duels by this author.