World Cup Series Ep. 6 - There's Only One Ronaldo

Before Cristiano and Lionel, before Ronaldinho and Henry, there was Ronaldo. A man whose ability relative to his peers was so extraordinary it felt like a leap in football evolution. A man who redefined what it meant to be a footballer, whose as yet incomparable ability to create magic with pace, power and precision quite literally changed the game.

For Ronaldo, the only comparisons at the time he exploded onto the world scene played other sports. To say he was football's equivalent of Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan can be backed up both by his explosive rise and impact before 1998, and maybe more so by the huge Nike deal he signed, making R9 the global megabrand's face of soccer.

But then came Paris. The biggest stage of all, a teamsheet submitted with his name a ...