Ronaldo: The road to redemption with Brazil at the 2002 World Cup

In the fifth and final instalment of BBC Sport's World Cup icons series, we explore Ronaldo's Golden Boot-winning redemption with Brazil in 2002.

The kneecap exploded. It was lodged above his muscular right thigh. Team-mates donned in blue and black stood hands on head in disbelief.

The comeback had lasted just six minutes.

There was a collective, anxious intake of breath. Was this the end of the game's most devastating forward?

Two years later, as the ball nestled into the corner of Oliver Kahn's goal with the same ruthless precision that characterised a whole career, Ronaldo's response was a resounding 'no'.

Brazil were world champions. The frenzied celebrations rippled around Yokohama's International Stadium, through a delirious Rio de Janeiro and via millions rejoicing in front of their television screens at home.

Il Fenomeno had silenced the critics and seemingly defied science.

He had not only overcome the injury problems that threatened to derail him at Inter Milan but also exorcised the demons that lingered from Selecao's World Cup final defeat against in 1998, when their star man suffered a seizure before the game.

Ronaldo had reclaimed his throne as the greatest among football's pantheon of goal-getters and his iconic grin, like his dazzling feet, lit up TV screens around the globe.

"He was fantastic, amazing," Brazil team-mate Cafu tells BBC Sport. "It showed the mental strength Ronaldo has to overcome the problems. It has been the story of his life."

The Brazil squad of 2002 have a WhatsApp group called 'Penta'.

Twenty years on from victory in Japan and South Korea, Cafu still messages daily as they reminisce about the nation's fifth world title. For Ronaldo, it is a welcome reminder of his redemption.

The rise was stratospheric.

After scoring 44 goals in 47 games in his first two seasons at Cruzeiro, Ronaldo went to USA '94 as a 17-year-old still bearing braces. He did not play a single minute, instead celebrating like a giddy kid waving an inflatable banana in Pierluigi Casiraghi's Italy shirt following Brazil's penalty shootout win in the final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

A move to Europe, on the advice of team-mate Romario, followed and paved the way for a relentless goalscoring spree with PSV Eindhoven.

"You could tell straight away he had a certain thing about him," explains former team-mate Boudewijn Zenden, who would hang out in Ronaldo's penthouse and even bought a Portuguese For Dummies book so they could communicate better.

"He was lightning fast and any goalscoring opportunity, the one-on-ones, he always scored.

"There was only one way and that was towards the goal, always with pace and always with a good finish. He had tricks and could dribble anybody, but it was always clinical and lethal."

Off the pitch, he was always good fun and Zenden re dressing his mate up as a clown on a visit to Maastricht Carnival.

"As soon as he started smiling, everybody recognised him!" laughs the Dutchman. "He was a really nice guy, always with a smile on his face, always in for a joke."

When it came to football, though, Ronaldo was deadly serious.

Asked by a reporter how many goals he would score in his first season in the Netherlands, he said without a blink of an eye: "32."

"The journalist started laughing," recalls Zenden. "But Ronaldo didn't find it funny."

Ronaldo scored 32 domestic goals that season - 35 in 36 games when you add the scintillating hat-trick against Bayer Leverkusen in the Uefa Cup to his tally.

Now the press weren't laughing, they were completely captivated. So were PSV fans, belting out his name, while pundits gawped at this teenage phenomenon.

Ronaldo's upward trajectory continued from PSV to Barcelona in 1996 for a world-record £13.2m, where he scored 47 goals in 49 games in one season - many of such bewildering solo quality he alone was worth the entrance fee.

He was crowned the world's best player before another record transfer in 1997, this time to Inter Milan for £19.5m. A second world player of the year award and a Ballon d'Or followed.

"You cannot give him one chance because he will score," adds Zenden. "That is his power. If you lose him out of sight, you are dead."

Just four years after he warmed the bench in the California sunshine, Ronaldo arrived at '98 as the most complete forward in the world.

"He was a constant danger," re former Brazil team-mate Savio. "A player with a lot of talent, a lot of capacity, a lot of resources in the field and - history tells us all - the best nine in football history. Phenomenal!"

He'd already scored a wonder goal in Paris a month earlier as Inter beat Lazio to win the Uefa Cup and then lit up the first six games of the World Cup to be awarded the Golden Ball. But it is the dramatic build-up to the final and his forlorn performance at the Parc des Prince that is ed.

Ronaldo woke from his sleep after the team lunch to be told he'd had a seizure, been unconscious for two minutes and would not play that evening.

Cafu was one of the first to his hotel room after the convulsions: "We were very worried because he was one of the key players of the team. He didn't travel with us on the bus, he went to the hospital and then came directly to the stadium."

Ronaldo convinced the medical team to do fitness tests but it was not until shortly before kick-off head coach Mario Zagallo was persuaded the forward was fine to start.

In the home dressing room, Lilian Thuram and his team-mates were convinced it was a ploy.

"We thought 'no way, Ronaldo is playing, they are just making this up to try and fool us'," the defender re.

"In games like this, small margins and how a player is feeling can make a difference.

"Who knows, if Ronaldo had been at 100% of his abilities and feeling well, maybe Brazil would have won"Billion Dollar Downfall: The Dealmaker " loading="lazy" src="https://image.staticox.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fichef.bbci.co.uk%2Face%2Fstandard%2F480%2Fsprodpb%2Fc1f3%2Flive%2F64425c60-42e5-11f0-835b-310c7b938e84.jpg" width="385" height="216" class="ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950"/>