As soccer great Ronaldo wept while announcing his retirement from the game on Monday, his supporters in China were saddened as well.

Diehard Ronaldo fan Jia Bo was expecting to spend a romantic Valentine's Day with his girlfriend, but things went awry when he heard the news Ronaldo had decided to hang up his boots.

"There's always a time for a player to retire, but I didn't expect it to come so suddenly," said Jia, a graduate at Jilin University, who has followed Ronaldo's illustrious career for more than 15 years.

"Ronaldo has left me so many precious memories. He is, of course, one of the greatest players of all-time and no one will take his place in my heart," he said.

Ronaldo's connection with China goes beyond his loyal fan base here.

During Brazil's 2002 World Cup group game against China, Ronaldo won a penalty and struck the final goal to seal a 4-0 victory for his side, which went on to win the Cup jointly hosted by South Korea and Japan.

The three-time FIFA World Player of the Year then visited China with Real Madrid in August 2003 and contributed an assist in the Spanish powerhouse's overwhelming 4-0 win against the Chinese Dragon team.

Ronaldo also appealed to the world to fight against SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) that same summer, when China was severely affected by the disease.

The 34-year-old Brazilian's retirement led most sports news in the Chinese media and was the hottest topic on China's most popular website Sina.com. Almost 700,000 fans tweeted in the 18 hours after his announcement.

A survey launched by Sohu.com saw 91.71 percent of participants claim Ronaldo was the best soccer player in the world.

However, former Chinese international centerback Fan Zhiyi bucked that trend.

"Every age creates great figures and Ronaldo only represented his time," said Fan.

"Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo also play exceptional soccer nowadays, so there's no need to make comparisons."

(China Daily 02/16/2011 page24)