'My goals are like my children': Ronaldo opens up on his career

10/22/2022

‘My goals are like my children… I love them all the same!’ Football royalty Ronaldo Nazario opens up on his incredible career, why he was ‘in love’ with Manchester United fans and why he wants Lionel Messi to flop in Qatar

Brazil’s legendary striker Ronaldo Nazario opens up on his incredible career
Ronaldo re-lived Brazil’s iconic game against England at the 2002 World Cup
He says David Seaman wasn’t the only one caught out by Ronaldinho’s free-kick
Ronaldinho’s wicked free-kick also caught him off guard, as he expected a cross
Ronaldo also laid out his hopes for Brazil in the upcoming 2022 Qatar World Cup
Click here for all the latest World Cup 2022 news and updates

England goalkeeper David Seaman wasn’t the only one caught out by Ronaldinho’s long-range free-kick in the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002 – Ronaldo Nazario was waiting in the penalty area, expecting a cross.

‘He surprised everybody,’ Ronaldo tells Sportsmail, with the same mischief in the eyes that made him so lovable two decades ago, scoring eight goals in seven matches to slay the demons of the previous tournament and become king of the world.

He will forever be football royalty, and if almost every shot ended in a goal back then, nearly every story and one-liner now brings a smile or a laugh.

Brazil’s legendary striker Ronaldo Nazario has opened up on his incredible career

Footballing royalty Ronaldo (pictured) is one of the greatest players to have graced the pitch

‘I was with him two months ago in Portland,’ he says of his old friend Ronaldinho – the two of them, plus Rivaldo were dubbed the ‘merchants of menace’ at the 2002 tournament.

‘I asked him about that goal against England and he told me, “Yeah, I was trying to put it there”. But I remember about a month after the World Cup he recorded something with (Brazilian media) Globo, trying from the same position to put the ball in the same place. He had 10 goes and not once did he manage it, so it was difficult.

‘But he has always said, with total conviction, that he was trying to put it there. We hadn’t trained it, but this happens with geniuses, they know in the moment what they need to do. Ronaldinho could put the ball wherever he wanted to.’

That tournament brought redemption for Ronaldo. As revealed in a new ZOOMSPORT feature documentary, The Phenomenon, he was still haunted by what Brazil team doctor, Jose Luiz Runco calls ‘a seizure brought on by a nervous breakdown’ just hours before the 3-0 defeat by France in the 1998 final. The pressure on his 21-year-old shoulders had been so great.

He had barely played in the two years previous to the 2002 finals because of a serious knee injury and he was in pain in the second half against England as the intensity of so many matches in a short time took its toll.

Ronaldo had a seizure brought on by a nervous breakdown just before the 1998 World Cup final

‘When Michael Owen scored we were shaken a bit,’ he recalls. ‘We knew we had plenty of time to change the situation but the English were playing really well. They were very aggressive, very compact and very strong physically.

‘Ronaldinho does something spectacular to create a three against two for the equaliser. Later he was sent off for a stupid foul. That’s what happens when we attackers are told to defend — we don’t know how to.’

What Ronaldo knew how to do was score goals — those that seemed to defy the laws of physics, one which left his then-Barcelona coach Bobby Robson putting his hands to his head in disbelief.

And those scored after his patellar tendon snapped in 2000, provoking one US surgeon to tell him he would never play again.

‘My goals are like my children,’ he says when asked if those scored in the 2-0 World Cup final win over Germany are dearer to him than the beauties from his earlier career.

‘I love them all the same. You can’t love one child more than another can you?

‘It’s true that the goal against SD Compostela (the run from the halfway line that astounded Robson) defined a part of my career. Then I got injured and it was more difficult to score goals like that because I lost a fraction of speed.

‘I couldn’t go past five or six men any more so I had to reinvent myself.’

Ronaldo (left) scored a brace as Brazil beat Germany 2-0 to win the 2002 World Cup final

What he never lost was the ability to win one-on-ones. He says a Ronaldo fan-site recently calculated that he had scored 90 goals in his career by going around the keeper.

It came so naturally to him, and he jokes about trying to explain the process to the players at the LaLiga club he owns, Valladolid.

‘In one game in my first season as president we had drawn at home but with five minutes left our right winger Keko was through and he shoots from three metres in front of the keeper — he was so desperate to get rid of the ball.

‘I said after the game, ‘What were you doing? You had the chance there and whatever you did it was going to work out! It’s so simple!

‘If you are going towards the keeper, he comes out, whatever you do you are going to be quicker than him — if you shoot one metre away from him to the right or the left the ball will go in because he can’t get down quickly enough.

‘You can see the ball, the keeper, the goal, you can see everything, and whatever you do apart from shooting straight at him, it’s going to work out’.’

It was affectionate and delivered with a smile, and Ronaldo is laughing now as he recalls the player’s response: “Yes, but you’re Ronaldo. Out there for us it’s very difficult!”.’

Asked about the possibility of ever becoming a coach, Ronaldo says that is something else that he has managed to dribble around.

‘I prefer to buy the teams but I don’t interfere in picking the side!’ he says of his Spanish club, and the more recently acquired Brazilian team, Cruzeiro.

The Brazilian legend admits his goals are just like his children (pictured) as he loves them

‘I’m a football man and I will always be but the idea of being a coach kills me. You have the same routine as a player but it’s worse because as a player you do what you have to do and then you go home. As the coach you have 25 young guys who want to screw with you!’

There’s more laughter as he adds: ‘It’s unthinkable, I’ve not even come close. But I have nothing but admiration for those who do.’

He doesn’t envy Brazil coach Tite’s job either with the Qatar World Cup looming. ‘Vinicius has to start,’ he says. ‘He would be first choice in any team. Raphinha is playing incredibly well but we also have Rodrygo and then Neymar looks in good shape.

‘Tite is going to have a problem because he also has Gabriel Jesus who is playing very well again with Arsenal, Richarlison who is a goals guarantee, and Antony. Let’s see what the coach does.’

When he considers the current array of top forwards elsewhere Ronaldo concludes that Kylian Mbappe is the closest to the way he played.

And he says that Erling Haaland is the striker who has finally made Pep Guardiola fall in love with No 9s.

And Lionel Messi? If Brazil can’t win in Qatar is there a part of him that wants Messi to lift the trophy?

Ronaldo says he can’t bear to think of rivals Argentina – or Lionel Messi – as world champions

‘If he gets Spanish nationality first,’ he laughs. ‘Spanish or Italian, whatever. It’s the rivalry between Brazil and Argentina. I have huge respect for them but I can’t bear to think of Argentina as world champions.

‘Does Messi deserve it? Of course he does! But not with my support! I love him, and he’s going to understand because you can be sure he feels exactly the same!’

Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Neymar will be Brazil’s talisman in Qatar and Ronaldo disputes the idea that Brazil’s current No 10 is unloved in comparison to other Brazil greats.

‘If we are just talking about football I doubt that there is anyone who doesn’t love Neymar,’ he says.

‘It’s true that his private life has transcended the football but I’m not interested in his private life. I don’t think you’ll find a football fan who doesn’t love the way he plays.’

It’s a generous appraisal. Ronaldo’s private life attracted attention too, but something about the way he went about things on the pitch seemed to inspire a different reaction from rival supporters.

He lights up when reminded that a year after winning the World Cup he was applauded off the pitch at Old Trafford having scored a hat-trick for Real Madrid. Was he aware Manchester United supporters were singing: ‘Fergie, Fergie, sign him up’?

Ronaldo was applauded off the pitch at Old Trafford having scored a hat-trick for Real Madrid

‘No, but it was a special night,’ he says. ‘I came away from that game in love with the United fans because I got that recognition after such a tough defeat for them and they did it as if it was normal.

‘I have the photo in my house when I’m going off the pitch and you can see the supporters in the background applauding, it’s a lovely picture.’

Ronaldo’s Brazil were the last South American world champions. ‘It’s true that there has been a European domination since 2002 and the European teams have not just won, but they have won playing well with a dynamic, aggressive football, and scoring goals a la Brazil,’ says Ronaldo.

‘Europe has had a period of football art with France and Spain; Italy won the Euros, the Germans are always there. And there is always a lot of expectation around the English and they also had a great Euros.

‘Argentina are on a run of 35 games without losing so we have a fun World Cup to look forward to!’

Ronaldo has always been about fun and the sense of enjoyment has not faded. There is no question he doesn’t try to answer with a smile, although that’s impossible to one about the political future of Brazil as it prepares to go to the polls again this month.

‘If the world is to advance on the road to dialogue and improving things, it has to be without extremists and radicals,’ he says.

Asked about Jair Bolsonaro appropriating the national football jersey he adds: ‘The shirt belongs to all Brazilians. There is a political war going on in Brazil as there is everywhere. Everything is very polarized, everyone is very intolerant of the other side.’

Regardless of how Brazil fare on the pitch in Qatar, Tite is likely to step down as coach and with Ronaldo having told us he’s not interested, what does he feel about a European stepping in? Guardiola has been linked before.

‘Yes, I would love to see that,’ he says. ‘Someone like Pep or Carlo Ancelotti could do something historical not just with the team but with the industry of Brazilian football and change it for the next 100 years.’

Could he persuade Guardiola to take over? ‘At Cruzeiro or Valladolid?’ he jokes. ‘I have a lot of problems with budgets and players.’

Both his clubs are actually thriving under his astute stewardship and he looks as comfortable in his new role as he once did on the pitch. Perhaps because of what he achieved 20 years ago there is a sense that he retired content.

It comes across in the film as he recalls how the daft haircut he sported after the England game helped distract from concerns over his fitness.

Brazil were the last South American world champions when they won the World Cup in 2002

But how he was still left pacing the team hotel corridors in the hours leading up to the game looking for team-mates to talk to so as not descend into panic over a repeat of the France ’98 incident. It ended well, although he says in the film: ‘Being able to play football again (after the injury) was my World Cup.’

He is rarely name-checked in debates around who is the greatest of all time. He says: ‘There is a very special group where you will find Maradona, Messi, Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Pele, Van Basten, Ronaldinho. I would include myself in that group and then let the fans in the bars argue about who is the best.’

He is not even bothered that there is a whole generation who think there is only one football great by the name of Ronaldo, and his first name is Cristiano.

‘I’m not the only Ronaldo,’ he says with a final smile. ‘I did the best I could with that name and obviously others will come along and do things better than me. I can’t do anything any more as a player. I am just trying to get better in the things I’m doing right now.’

The mystery of Ronaldo’s 1998 World Cup final; his special haircut in the 2002 final (‘ridiculous’ in the words of Roberto Carlos); and his torturous comeback from a snapped knee tendon are the focus of the feature documentary ‘The Phenomenon’ released this month.

Of the hours leading up to the ’98 final, Ronaldo recalls that he disappeared to the bathroom to shave his head while Roberto Carlos took a nap in their shared hotel room and the next thing he remembered there were 15 people in the room looking over him.

Concerned teammates ruled out his participation in the final after the incident but he tells filmmakers ZOOMSPORT that he insisted on being taken to a local Paris hospital for tests so that he could get the all-clear to play.

Brazil team doctor, Jose Luiz Runco confirms: ‘He had a nervous breakdown which led to the seizure’. Ronaldo says: ‘The mental health of athletes was not considered then. We were gladiators and we were thrown into the arena to fight for our lives.’

Post-France ’98, Ronaldo tried to resume his spectacular club form at Inter, but a ruptured Patellar tendon injury kept him out for the best part of two years. At first the decision was made to only patch-up his knee because the tendon was only partially torn – a procedure that Inter doctor Gerard Saillant admits was a mistake.

A second injury struck Ronaldo down just minutes into his return game. ‘We all heard the noise of something snap’ says then team-mate Diego Simeone of the now fully-severed tendon.

Ronaldo was told by one US surgeon that he would never play again but he kept faith with Inter medic Saillant and after four months of rehabilitation, returned to action.

There were still more obstacles between him and the 2002 World Cup. In the film he describes Inter coach Hector Cuper as the worst he had in his career, and details how he made the players run four kilometres every day as a warm-up.

Physical overload and the coach’s reluctance to pick him endangered his chances of making Felipe Scolari’s Brazil squad.

Ronaldo did make the tournament although as Brazil progressed old demons began to haunt him. What if he got injured? What if he had another seizure? Much to Scolari’s irritation he decided to sport a new haircut and that helped take the focus off his fitness.

But on the afternoon of the final against Germany he still found himself traumatised by the prospect of having another turn. It never comes, he plays, and scores twice in the final to complete the incredible story.

His mum delivers the best line of the film when she sees him for the first time on the plane home: ‘What was that haircut all about?’ she says. His predictable reply: ‘Come on mum, we’ve just won the World Cup!’

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