Zidane, Beckham and Carlos – Who Ronaldo linked up with most for goals?

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Four Brazilians in top ten 

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima will forever be etched in history as one of the most iconic footballers to ever grace the pitch. The Brazilian remains arguably one of the greatest strikers to have ever graced the pitch but injury issues deprived him of the longevity in his career that some of his contemporaries enjoyed. 

Ronaldo was truly a superstar and the hysteria that followed was unbelievable at a time before social media fanfare. The legendary Brazilian scored 298 club goals across 454 appearances in spells at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, PSV and AC Milan, amongst others. Ronaldo also netted 62 goals in 99 appearances for his beloved Brazil and famously won the World Cup in 1994 and 2002. Ronaldo enjoyed fruitful partnerships with famous teammates across his career and we’ve calculated which players the O Fenômeno enjoyed the most goal involvements with – combined assists and goals.

Across his career, Ronaldo linked up with Zinédine Zidane more than any other player to score. The Brazilian played with the legendary Frenchman 140 times and they combined to provide 31 goals. Ronaldo and Zidane played for Real Madrid during their famous Galactico era during the early 2000s when they signed some of the biggest names in football, including Luís Figo. 

 As the graphic above illustrates, Ronaldo combined with Figo to score 29 goals across 164 appearances. The duo played together at Real Madrid but they also pulled on the shirt of their rivals Barcelona earlier in their careers. Madrid legend Raúl ranks third on the list after combining directly with Ronaldo to provide 21 goals in 142 appearances. No player is more synonymous with Ronaldo across his career than Roberto Carlos. The close friends played together at Madrid but also for the Brazilian national team and Ronaldo played with the left-back more than any other player during his career. They were teammates on 269 occasions and they linked up directly to score 19 goals. Ronaldo followed in the footsteps of fellow iconic Brazilian striker by moving to Barcelona from PSV and they linked up for 12 goals in 19 appearances for Brazil. Some famous names complete the top ten including David Beckham, Kaká and Rivaldo, while Ronaldo formed an incredible partnership with Luc Nilis at PSV.