He was quite good during his peak, but I’ve always thought he was abit overrated back then. The season he won Ballon D’or, well yeh he was great in CL (10 goals in 15 CL games) and won it in the end, but over the course of season he wasn’t really that special (8 goals in 31 Serie A games), Ronaldo should have won it to be fair.
And of course his peak last very short, maybe only for around 2 or 3 years at most, then like many Brazilian before him, his form drop drastically after his transfer to Real. That’s really a pity.
I’d say during his peak he was just behind Figo and Rivaldo etc. Over his career is very tricky, won’t rate him highly obviously, but he was still Ballon D’or winner, maybe same tier as Owen then.