All the World’s His Stage
In Spain, they called him “the Extraterrestrial.”
In Italy, he is known simply as “Il Fenomeno”--”the Phenomenon.”
But to find out who Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima really is, you have to leave Europe and travel across the Atlantic to Brazil. And you have to travel back in time a little too.
Set the dials for Rio de Janeiro’s downtrodden Bento Ribeiro district, circa 1982. Look for a group of children kicking a ball around a dusty street and seek out a 6-year-old known to his friends as Ronaldinho.
What you will have discovered is the boy who would become arguably the greatest soccer player of his generation. A player who, at 21, already is being compared to Pele, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff, a player whose combined transfer fees in the last four years have topped $53 million, a player who this summer in France is fully expected to inspire Brazil to its fifth World Cup victory.
Even at age 6, he knew his destiny.
“I was tiny when the first great Brazilian players started to come to Europe, following their dreams,” he said not long ago. “I was 6 years old and I decided I’d come to Europe as soon as I could.”
Now flash forward seven years. Ronaldinho is 13, a big kid for his age, but one whose soccer skills do not impress coaches at the great Rio club Flamengo. One of several thousand youngsters to try out for the junior team, he is rejected.
So, instead of taking on the famous red and black colors of Flamengo and playing in mighty Maracana stadium, Ronaldinho joined his Bento Ribeiro neighborhood team, Social Ramos Clube, moving later to a slightly larger but equally obscure club, Sao Christovao.
It was to be a move that changed his life. At Sao Christovao, he came under the coaching of one of the sport’s great figures, Jairzinho, who wrote his name large in soccer’s history books as the superb right wing on Brazil’s legendary 1970 World Cup-winning team.
Jairzinho turned Ronaldo into a star.
By 1991, he already was a champion, having helped Brazil win the South American under-17 title. He then moved up to a big-name club, Cruzeiro, and began attracting widespread attention by scoring at better than a goal-a-game pace.
And in 1994, at 17, he came to the United States.
But unlike Pele in 1958, Ronaldo was not destined to play a major role in winning a World Cup as a 17-year-old. Brazil’s coach in ‘94, Carlos Alberto Parreira, was pleased to have the teenager on his team, but Ronaldo stayed on the bench that summer and watched as the twin strike force of Romario and Bebeto powered Brazil to the title.
His time lay in the future.
Once the World Cup was over, however, his dream of playing in Europe finally came true. Former European champion PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands bought Ronaldo from Cruzeiro for $6 million. The move was met with raised eyebrows, but it turned out to be the soccer bargain of the decade.
In Holland, Ronaldo’s goal-scoring ability showed no sign of tapering off. In his first season, he was the leading scorer in the Dutch first division with 30 goals, causing some to doubt his age.
Said Bernd Schuster, former Atletico Madrid and German national team midfielder: “If he doesn’t get big-headed, he could be a great one. But is he really 17? In Spain, we had a few South Americans--they arrived at age 26, played eight years and were still 26.”
Ronaldo, by soccer standards a physically imposing 5 feet 11 and 170 pounds, shrugged off such jibes with the same ease he shrugs off defenders trying to tackle him. In his second season, he helped PSV win the Dutch Cup, but a knee injury ruined his and PSV’s hopes of a league championship.
Still, his prowess as a striker had caught the attention of even wealthier clubs in Italy and Spain and they started asking about buying him.
“Ronaldo still has a contract, but everybody has a price,” PSV’s treasurer was quoted as saying. Before long, the Dutch club let that price be known--$19.2 million, or $1 million for each year of Ronaldo’s life.
Barcelona did not even blink. It snapped up Ronaldo just as it had bought Romario from PSV a few years earlier. Before Ronaldo joined the Catalan club, however, he made a detour to Atlanta to win a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympic Games. It was his second disappointing trip to the United States. Brazil always expects championships, not third-place finishes.
Once in Spain, however, his career turned from bronze to gold in a hurry. His arrival caused attendance to soar at Nou Camp stadium. TV ratings for Barcelona’s matches likewise improved. Ronaldo and Spain seemed ideally suited to each other, and the reviews for the soft-spoken, shaven-headed striker were all positive, even from opponents.
After one game at Compostela that Barcelona won, 5-1, the losing coach, Fernando Vazquez, said: “Ronaldo could be the latest [Alfredo] Di Stefano or Pele.” The young forward had scored two goals and created two others. On one of the goals, he started in his own half of the field, dribbled past five players, then beat the goalkeeper with a fierce shot. The achievement was greeted with sustained applause from the Compostela fans.
In another Barcelona rout, Ronaldo scored twice in an 8-0 victory over Logrones, after which Logrones Coach Miguel Angel Lotina was asked if there were any ways Ronaldo could be stopped.
“The only ones that occur to me are illegal,” he replied.
Ronaldo’s one season with Barcelona was a huge success. He scored 34 goals in 37 games, helping the club win the Spanish Cup and the European Cup Winners’ Cup. In a personal triumph, he was selected as FIFA’s world player of the year for 1996, becoming only the second Brazilian, after Romario in 1994, to earn the honor.
“I am young and I still have a lot to learn,” he said after the award ceremony. “When they handed me the trophy, I remembered when I was young and how I wanted to be the best player in the world.”
Recognizing his ability to be just that, Barcelona offered him a new contract, doubling his salary to $3.85 million a year and binding him to the club until 2006. But there was friction within the club and before long it became apparent that Ronaldo would again be moving on.
Real Madrid expressed interest, as did Scottish champion Glasgow Rangers, but Ronaldo’s mind was set on going to Italy. After one of the most drawn-out and publicized contract squabbles in soccer history, Inter Milan eventually agreed to pay Barcelona almost $30 million to buy out the Brazilian’s contract. This for a player who had cost $6 million only three seasons earlier.
Finally, after months of speculation and doubt, Ronaldo last September donned the No. 10 black-and-blue jersey of Inter Milan to begin his career in Serie A, perhaps the most competitive league in the world.
“Ronaldo is a costly present to Inter fans,” said Massimo Moratti, the team’s owner and president. “I’m sure it will pay off.”
As in Barcelona, season-ticket sales soared, and Ronaldo, only 20, said just the right things.
“I know the fans are expecting a lot, and I want to help them to win titles,” he said. “My life has always been a series of challenges and I’m psychologically prepared, but this is the biggest challenge of my life.”
In his first season in Italy, Ronaldo helped Inter Milan win the UEFA Cup, but he was thwarted in his effort to win his first national championship as Inter Milan last month finished second behind Juventus of Turin.
Characteristically modest, he has expressed surprise at the attention he has received in Italy and at comparisons with soccer greats of the past.
“I don’t understand all this sudden amazement,” he said. “I was already good when I was just 16--poor, but good nevertheless. I just get on with my work and try to do it the best I can. I don’t envy anyone, and I’m not looking for confrontation or comparison with anyone, least of all Pele or Romario.”
Although he has been featured on the cover of virtually every soccer magazine and this spring was an overwhelming choice as the 1997 FIFA world player of the year--becoming the first to win the honor two years in a row--Ronaldo remains a private person.
He is engaged to be married in August to Brazilian model and actress Susana Werner--nicknamed “Ronaldinha” by the media--but there is little known about him.
He is fascinated by racing cars, and when he moved from Barcelona to Milan he switched from a sports utility vehicle to a silver Ferrari. He can afford to holiday anywhere he likes, but says his choice would be to go to EuroDisney in Paris with his fiancee. He has been described as “disarmingly childlike,” but he bulldozes his way past tougher, older, more experienced players, using strength, agility and balance.
In an interview with USA Today in January, he expressed unqualified admiration for the Bulls’ Michael Jordan.
“I have one of Jordan’s videos,” he said. “Sometimes, when I watch what he does, I cry. You know, an Italian journalist asked Jordan about me in a press conference, and he [Jordan] didn’t know who I was.”
He has lived in the pressure-cooker that is international soccer for five years now--wining the Copa America and the Confederations’ Cup with Brazil along the way--but this will be the toughest year of all.
“Time is the one thing I don’t have,” he said. “I never have time to be with my family, to see places, to relax with my friends. All that will have to wait until I stop playing.”
That will not be soon, however.
“I’m still young,” he said, “and I have some time left for more rewards and records. I’ll stop playing the day I feel the motivation has faded out.”
For now, the motivation is to win the World Cup in France. At the Europe vs. the Rest of the World all-star match that accompanied the France ’98 Draw at Marseille in December, Ronaldo was in an irrepressible mood, scoring two goals and setting up three others in a 5-2 victory for The Rest of the World.
Afterward, Parreira, who coached the team, said: “If [Europe’s coach, Franz] Beckenbauer had had Ronaldo, Europe would have won; that’s how good he is. Players like [Holland’s Patrick] Kluivert, [Croatia’s Davor] Suker and [Argentina’s Gabriel] Batistuta should shine [in the World Cup], but Ronaldo will be the star for sure.”
With Romario this week having been forced out of France ’98 by injury, thereby ruining the “Ro-Ro” strike force of Romario and Ronaldo, even more pressure will be on the 21-year-old’s shoulders.
“When I used to play football in the street, I dreamed of being Zico and of becoming the best player in the world,” he told Britain’s Press Assn. in April. “A lot of people tell me that it is already the case. But I feel I am far from being as gifted as Romario, who is still the greatest for me.
“He is the one who has won everything, scored all possible goals, from all positions.”
Now Romario is absent and Ronaldo will have to share the stage with another striker, perhaps another 1994 hero, Bebeto, but more likely Edmundo. Either way, it is Ronaldo’s World Cup to win or lose.
“I have thought a lot about this World Cup, because it will determine the rest of my career in football,” he said. “I have the future in front me, and I want to progress and become the best footballer in the world.
“I am ambitious, and this World Cup is my chance to become a great player, to join Romario and enter into the history of Brazilian football.”
The last word belongs to the man who will coach him in France, four-time World Cup winner Mario Lobo Zagallo. At 66, he understands the 21-year-old better than anyone.
“Let’s forget the comparisons with Pele and recognize Ronaldo for what he is--the best player in his position in the world,” Zagallo said. “Ronaldo is not the past; he is the present.”
And very likely the future too.
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Ronaldo at a Glance
* Full name: Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima.
* Age: 21.
* Born: Sept. 22, 1976, in Rio de Janeiro.
* Nationality: Brazilian.
* Position: Striker.
* Club: Internazionale Milan (Italy).
* Previous clubs: Cruzeiro (Brazil); PSV Eindhoven (Netherlands), Barcelona (Spain).
* Honors won: UEFA Cup (1998); FIFA world player of the year (1996 and 1997); European player of the year (1997); Copa America (1997); Confederations’ Cup (1997); European Cup Winners’ Cup (1997); Spanish Cup (1997); Olympic Games bronze medal (1996); Dutch Cup (1996); Golden Boot winner as Europe’s top goal scorer (1996); World Cup (1994); Brazilian Cup (1993); CONMEBOL (South American) U-17 Championship (1991).
