There is a video somewhere (I've got to try and find it) of young Ronaldo, Anderson and Rio Ferdinand being interviewed.
The three were asked 'who is the greatest player of all time?' Anderson and Ferdinand said 'Maradona' and Ronaldo said 'me'.
When Ronaldo said that, the other two laughed at him.
Now we could look at this as a 'they all laughed at Wilbur and his brother, they're not laughing now' type feather in Ronaldo's cap, and it is anazing in a sense that he sort of manifested his destiny in that way, and 'spoke it into existence.' He's still trying to do that now, l o l.
But I think it illustrates a more salient point, which is that Ronaldo's elevation to the pantheon is a 'triumph of the will' scenario, where he's kind of clawed his way into the discussion, and he absolutely did not have the level of footballing ability that suggested that he would one day be regarded as the greatest player of all time. You're absolutely right that no one at the start could have forseen what he would achieve in his career (apart from Ronaldo himself, of course).
This is not the same as saying that he had no ability or negligible ability, which Ronaldo fans huffily like to make out that people are saying when they make statements like this. There are many levels to footballing ability and skill.
I often contrast this in my head with someone like Maradona. In the Asif Kapadia doc, you can see him being interviewed in Argentina when he was still a teenager and he is being asked about the comparisons to Pele that are being made.
