Is Ronaldo de Lima (R9) considered a Barcelona legend by the Barcelona fans and world football?

sportsczy wrote:Francescoli and Drogba are considered OM legends although they only stayed one year... but they achieved legendary things in that one year.  

OM won Ligue 1 and were CL semifinalists... and Francescoli was magnificent.  Dream stuff.  Starting 11 was great:  Huard, Amoros, Forster, Mozer, Di Meco, Sauzée, Deschamps, Tigana (Germain), Waddle, Papin, Francescoli.

Drogba took OM to the Europa final in 2003-2004 and scored 11 goals in Europe for the club that season.  He had 37 goals and 10 assists or something like that for OM.  He single-handedly carried the club in Europa,

To me, it's about the memories and emotions a player creates.  Some players don't do anything earth shattering in one specific season...  but build up a career that is legendary at a club.  Others have an incredible impact for a season or two...  short, but their stay will never leave the memories of the fans.  Of course, players that do both take the elite legendary status.

So for me, R9 has to be a Barca legend... not like Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, etc obviously... but still a legend.  Barcelona was 2nd in La Liga, won spanish supercup, won Europa and won CDR.  He was BY FAR the best player on the team.  

The shame of it was that Barca replaced R9 with Rivaldo.  Imagine if they had stayed together... good for Madrid but what a team that would have been.

Barca didn't win anything in 1995-1996 btw.  3rd in La Liga, CDR finalist and Europa semis... the year before R9 arrived.

BarcaLearning wrote:I read somewhere that Barca lost the title on the last day of that season too, what bad luck, if they did win it it would have been a perfect season then Very Happy

Must have been amazing to watch him live or even just on TV too.... the way he just seems like an alien playing among little earthlings I remember I pretty much only started out watching football in 1997 and only watched EPL supporting Liverpool, La Liga didnt get that much global coverage back then.

Harmonica wrote:Umm, Cruyff isn't Barca legend as a player either.

Valkyrja wrote:

Harmonica wrote:Umm, Cruyff isn't Barca legend as a player either.

That's just lame even for you

sportsczy wrote:Good lord Harmonica... all this time and you still haven't figured out that football is about emotions.  The players that bring joy to the fans are the top players.  Stats are great and everything... but they are very secondary.

Just to give you a Barcelona example other than R9...  Cruyff only scored 48 goals in 143 games (5 full seasons) at Barca as a player.  In those 5 years, Barca only managed 1 La Liga title and 1 CDR total.  If you look at it based on today's standards, the stats show that both Cruyff and Barca were average during that period.  But would anyone ever think that Cruyff wasn't a fantastic player during that time? And people would not know today that it was rare for players to score 20 goals in a season back then.

Emotions... that's football.

sportsczy wrote:Rules were different, pitches weren't perfect like today, training wasn't the same, nutrition, shoes... and the ball was MASSIVELY different.  I played with the Adidas Tango.  100% leather football with water resistant coating.  It was night and day compared to the ball today.  First off, the trajectory was pure... impossible to make the ball dip and swerve like today.  Best you could do was make it bend in one direction.  Second, it was heavy.  Todays footballs are light as a feather.  Back then, I remember trying to kick a football when I was 10 and it wasn't that easy. It hurt my foot until i did it properly

Far fewer games too.

So there's a whole set of different variables. Can't compare stats as a result.