World Cup winner Ronaldo: "It's a fantastic feeling"

World Cup final match winner Ronaldo says he worked for nearly three years to recover from serious injury to be the star player at the 2002 finals this month.

"I worked for 2½ years trying to recover from that injury and today God reserved this for me and the team," he said as he celebrated with team mates after Brazil won an unprecedented fifth world title.

"Everyone is so happy to have landed this championship. It's a fantastic feeling to be Brazilian tonight.

"This is for my family and my physiotherapist, who fought with me knowing we would be here two years later."

Brazilian physio Nilton Petrone has worked constantly with the Internazionale striker to get him in shape after three serious knee injuries since his World Cup disappointment in France four years ago. Many felt his career at top level was over last year after the final serious knee surgery. He had not played a game for Brazil in three years until scoring in friendly last month against Malaysia ahead of these finals and has now hit 45 goals in 64 matches for the Selecao.

The 25 year old scored both goals in Yokohama midway through the second half to end as top scorer at the finals with eight goals in seven matches.