Ronaldo quickly attracted attention from big clubs, and his agents rejected offers from Botafogo and São Paulo. He was turned down by Flamengo, the team he supported as a boy, after missing practice due to an inability to afford the fare for the hour-long bus ride. Jairzinho saw Ronaldo's potential and helped get him a move to Cruzeiro. Ronaldo's agents accepted an offer of €50,000 from the club, and he scored four goals on his youth team debut.

Three months after arriving at Cruzeiro, Ronaldo made his professional debut on 25 May 1993 against Caldense in the Minas Gerais State Championship. His first senior goal came in a friendly during a tour of Portugal, scoring a goal against Belenenses and generally impressing new coach Carlos Alberto Silva, enough to become a first team regular. During the tour, his performance against Porto impressed enough that they bid $500,000, which was turned down by club president César Masci.

Upon returning from the 1993 summer tour, he would score 20 goals in 21 games for Cruzeiro until the end of the year. On 5 October 1993 he scored his first senior career hat-trick against Chilean side Colo-Colo (6–1) in the first home leg of the Supercopa Libertadores. He scored two more in the second leg, further three against Uruguayan team Nacional, and finished as the tournament's top-scorer with 8 goals, being the youngest to do so in the history of the Supercopa Libertadores.

On 7 November 1993 he came to national public attention once more by scoring five goals in Cruzeiro's 6–0 home win against Bahia in the 1993 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A and became the second youngest South-American in history to score a league hat-trick behind Pelé.

Ronaldo scored a total of 44 goals in 47 games with Cruzeiro in two seasons, leading them to their first Copa do Brasil in 1993, and the Minas Gerais State Championship in 1994.
Ronaldo joined PSV after the 1994 World Cup. He was selected for the tournament despite being just 17, but did not play in any games. His Brazil teammate Romário having played for PSV from 1988 to 1993 advised Ronaldo to move to the club. On 28 August 1994, Ronaldo scored ten minutes into his debut against Vitesse, and scored a brace on his home debut against Go Ahead Eagles. He scored 30 league goals in his first season in the Netherlands, which included seven braces and a hat-trick against Utrecht. After scoring a hat-trick in PSV's game against Bayer Leverkusen in the 1994–95 UEFA Cup, Leverkusen striker and Germany World Cup winner Rudi Völler stated in a post match press conference, "Never in my life have I seen an 18-year-old play in this way." His dribbles from midfi…

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Ronaldo made his international debut for Brazil on 23 March 1994 in a friendly match in Recife against Argentina. His first senior goal for Brazil came on 4 May 1994 in a 3–0 friendly win against Iceland. He went to the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States aged 17, but did not play as Brazil went on to win the tournament. He stated he was "overjoyed" at the experience. He was then known as Ronaldinho ("little Ronaldo" in Portuguese), because Ronaldo Rodrigues de Jesus, his older teammate, was also called Ronaldo and later nicknamed Ronaldão ("big Ronaldo") to further distinguish them. Another player, Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, now widely known as Ronaldinho, was called Ronaldinho Gaúcho when he joined the Brazil team in 1999.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Ronaldo used the name Ronaldinho again, since centre-back Ronaldo Guiaro, two years his senior, was one of his teammates. Brazil went on to win the bronze medal. Ronaldo also represented Brazil in the 1995 Copa América (finishing second) and won both the 1997 and the 1999 editions of the tournament. He was named player of the tournament in 1997, was the top scorer in 1999 and scored in the finals of both, against Bolivia in 1997 and Uruguay in 1999. He also took part in the friendly Tournoi de France in 1997, preceding the 1998 FIFA World Cup, scoring a goal as Brazil became runners-up. Ronaldo starred alongside Romário, dubbed the Ro-Ro attack, at the 1997 FIFA Confederations Cup, helping Brazil win their first ever Confederations Cup title where he finished as the third-highest scorer with 4 goals, scoring a hat-trick against Australia in the final. On the combination of Ronaldo and Romário, Will Sharp writes: "...to the elation of all those fortunate enough to have watched them, they found themselves together, fated with the opportunity to forge one of the most outrageous offensive pairings the game has ever seen. Their partnership was brief but it was inexplicably brilliant."
Ronaldo entered the 1998 FIFA World Cup billed as the world's greatest player by reporters in the sport. Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian writes, "In 1998, no one was as ferociously talented as Ronaldo, whose supernatural mixture of power, pace and skill had made him the player every child in the playground wanted to be; at the age of 21, the hopes and dreams of a nation rested on his shoulders."

Ronaldo scored four goals and made three assists en route to the final, scoring once and assisting Bebeto's goal in a 3–0 win against Morocco in the team's second group stage match, netting twice in a 4–1 win against Chile in the round of 16, set–up two goals in Brazil's 3–2 victory over Denmark in the quarter-finals, and scored once in the 1–1 draw against the Netherlands in the semi-finals, also netting Brazil's first penalty in the 4–2 shoot–out victory. Hours before the final against France, Ron…

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Ronaldo is regarded as one of the greatest and most complete forwards of all time. Nicknamed Il (or O) Fenomeno (the phenomenon), he was a prolific goalscorer, and despite being more of an individualistic attacker, he was also capable of providing assists for his teammates, due to his vision, passing and crossing ability. He was an extremely powerful, fast, and technical player, with excellent movement, as well as being a composed finisher. Highly regarded for his technical ability, Ronaldo was able to use both feet, despite being naturally right footed, and is considered one of the most skillful dribblers in the game. Ronaldo would also operate outside the penalty area before running with the ball towards goal, with Rob Smyth writing, "he played like every attack had a 10-second deadline.. he would explode into life with no warning for defenders." He frequently beat several players when dribbling at speed, and excelled in one on one situations, due to his ball control, acceleration, agility, balance and nimble footwork in his prime.

His coach at Barcelona, Bobby Robson, commented: "Ronaldo could start from the halfway line and the whole stadium would ignite. He was the fastest thing I've ever seen running with the ball. Had he managed to stay free of injury, he had every chance of becoming the best footballer ever." In one on one situations, Ronaldo often used elaborate feints to trick and beat defenders and goalkeepers; he popularised the use of many football tricks such as the elastico and the step over. Sid Lowe of Sports Illustrated wrote, "When he was one on one with the goalkeeper, you knew that he would score. He was so natural, so cool, so utterly in control. He would dip the shoulder, step over, and bang!"

His Barcelona teammate Óscar García observed, "I'd never seen anyone play football with such technical ability, creativity and precision at that incredible speed. What stood out to all of us, from the moment we met Ronnie, was that he could do things which other players found very difficult and make them look easy. But he could also produce those things while running at an unbelievable, explosive pace." With his combination of speed, skill and finishing Ronaldinho called Ronaldo "the most complete striker there has ever been", a view echoed by Zlatan Ibrahimović, who stated, "as a football player, he was complete. There will never, in my view, be a better player than him." The goalscoring idol of Lionel Messi, the Argentine states "Ronaldo was the best striker I've ever seen. He was so fast he could score from nothing." Wanting to emulate Ronaldo growing up, Egypt and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah opined, "The ability, the speed, the intelligence, he had everything". Naming Ronaldo as an inspiration, Wayne Rooney stated, "as an out-and-out forward he was probably the best." The outstanding influence for a generation of strikers, from Karim Benzema to S…

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