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After Though Season Ronaldo Prepares for World Cup

Ronaldo didn`t have the best season of his career with many questions hovering over the Brazilian`s player performance. Ronaldo is planning to use soccer`s greatest stage, the FIFA World Cup, to answer all his critics and hoping to be the tournament`s best goal maker.

A successful transfer to Real Madrid and a third FIFA world player of the year award at the end of 2002 indicated that no one would write off Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima again in a hurry. Or would they?
Fast forward to 2006, and it is deja vu all over again for Ronaldo, who has endured a miserable season in Madrid that has seen him jeered and booed by his own fans at the Bernabeu. A goal-scoring drought, injuries, a chaotic personal life and concerns over his ever-expanding waistline have again led people to wonder whether, at 29, Ronaldo is washed up.

Yet Ronaldo, and perhaps more importantly, Brazil`s coach Carlos Alberto Parreira, are unfazed by the doubts. "It saddens me that people have tried to take advantage," Ronaldo said in an interview with British football monthly Four Four Two. "This has been one of the hardest years of my career. I have had to swallow a thousand stupid things. I just want to be treated with respect and that`s not happening at the moment," he added, shrugging off concerns over his fitness.