Did you Know?
Ronaldo entered the 1998 FIFA World Cup billed as the world’s greatest player by reporters in the sport. Jacob Steinberg of The Guardian writes, “In 1998, no one was as ferociously talented as Ronaldo, whose supernatural mixture of power, pace and skill had made him the player every child in the playground wanted to be; at the age of 21, the hopes and dreams of a nation rested on his shoulders.” He scored four goals and made three assists en route to the final. Hours before the final he suffered a convulsive fit. At first, Ronaldo was removed from the starting lineup 72 minutes before the match, and the team sheet (with Edmundo as his replacement) was submitted to the FIFA delegate. The starting line up without Ronaldo was released to a stunned world media. The BBC’s John Motson stated, “The scenes in the commentary box have been absolute mayhem and chaos.” However shortly before kick off, after pleading that he felt fine and requested to play, Ronaldo was reinstated by Brazil coach Mário Zagallo. Ronaldo was the last Brazilian player out of the tunnel as the teams entered the field. During the playing of the Brazil national anthem the camera focused on him throughout, with Ronaldo showing little emotion. Steinberg states that Ronaldo “sleepwalked” through the final, which also saw him injured in a collision with French goalkeeper Fabien Barthez. Zagallo admitted the fears over Ronaldo affected his team psychologically, and stated “for the whole of the first half I was wondering whether to take him off”, but feared a public outcry in Brazil had he done so. Brazil lost the match to hosts France 3–0. Ronaldo later reflected: “We lost the World Cup but I won another cup – my life.” An inquest was launched in Brazil, with team doctor Lídio Toledo telling the commission “imagine if I stopped Ronaldo playing and Brazil lost. At that moment I’d have to go and live on the North Pole.” Adrian Williams, professor of clinical neurology at Birmingham University, said that Ronaldo should not have played, that he would have been feeling the after effects of the seizure, and “there is no way that he would have been able to perform to the best of his ability within 24 hours of his first fit – if it was his first fit.” Despite his sub-par performance in the final due to his seizure hours earlier, Ronaldo was awarded the Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament for his performances leading up to the final, and finished the tournament as the joint-third highest scorer. The nature of the incident set off a trail of questions and allegations which persisted for years, with Alex Bellos writing in The Guardian, “When Ronaldo’s health scare was revealed after the match, the situation’s unique circumstances lent itself to fabulous conspiracy theories. Here was the world’s most famous sportsman, about to take part in the most important match of his career, when he suddenly, inexplicably, fell ill. Was it stress, epilepsy, or had he been drugged?“
Things to Know:
These boots were used by Ronaldo during the Fifa World Cup “France 98”. They were used in several games and they were given to his team mate the goalkeeper Carlos Germano who we got it from. The boots were given after the World Cup and they were very used and damaged with a sole missing. This Nike Mercurial, especially made for World Cup 1998 for Ronaldo, and used by him only, is definitely the most popular known Nike model ever. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nike Mercurial in 2018 a Ronaldo Mercurial 1998 re-edition was released. See below Ronaldo with the 2018 Mercurial.
Did you Know?
Ronaldo was a Nike testimonial. He wore Nike boots since his very beginning. Nike, as it happened for example with Michael Jordan with the AIR JORDAN developed Ronaldo’s own line called R9. Ronaldo’s boots were branded R9 and many other players sponsored by Nike used a similar R9 boots. But Ronaldo’s boots had a small details that made his boots different from the others. He was the only player to have the Nike Swoosh stitched all around. So if you’ll ever have a pair of Ronaldo’s boots make sure to check this detail…If they don’t have it…they are not Ronaldo’s.
Watch all of the FIFA WORLD CUP 2002 goals of Ronaldo.
Things to Know:
Prior to the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Ronaldo had barely played since rupturing the cruciate ligament in his right knee in April 2000, and he missed Brazil’s entire qualification campaign where, in his absence, the team had not been impressive. In a remarkable comeback from injury that had threatened his career, Ronaldo led Brazil to their record fifth World Cup triumph where he won the Golden Shoe as top scorer with eight goals, and was runner-up to the Golden Ball as most valuable player in the tournament. Dubbed the “three R’s”, Ronaldo starred in a formidable attack alongside Rivaldo and Ronaldinho, and the trio were named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team. Ronaldo scored against every opponent in the tournament except in the quarter-finals against England. In the final against Germany in Yokohama, Japan, Ronaldo scored twice and tied Pelé’s Brazilian record of 12 career World Cup goals. Ronaldo was congratulated by Pelé when receiving his World Cup winners medal. Gérard Saillant, the French surgeon who operated on Ronaldo’s knee, was in the crowd as his guest, and stated after the game; “This gives hope to everyone who is injured, even those who aren’t sportsmen, to see that by fighting you can make it. He’s back to where he was; it’s hugely satisfying and I am very moved.” Ronaldo received the Laureus World Sports Award for Comeback of the Year, and in December 2002 he dedicated his third FIFA World Player of the Year award to the medical team which helped him recover.
Ronaldo’s insole made by Centro del Piede of Montebelluna (Italy)
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These boots were worn by Nazario Ronaldo during the King’s Cup game between Real Madrid and Ecija which took place in Madrid, “Santiago Bernabeu” Stadium, on November 9th 2006. These boots were exclusively released by Nike for this game only with a special “ninemillion.org” embroidery on sides to support the UNHCR’s campaign called “NineMillion.org” which Ronaldo was testimonial of. These boots with this personalization were used only in this game. Under the slogan “Nine million faces. Nine million names. Nine million stories,” UNHCR and its corporate partners are counting on a major new internet-based campaign to help refugee and displaced children around the world. nine.org was launched on World Refugee Day (June 20) as a new public-private sector initiative and an example of how business partners are helping UNHCR to give refugees hope for a better future. United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and his special adviser on sport for development and peace, Adolf Ogi, gave their backing to the campaign in Geneva on Wednesday. “Nine million refugee children. That is unacceptable. We need actions. And not only words. Therefore, this campaign is very important. For refugee children and youth there are few things more important than education and sport. They can make the difference between despair and hope,” Ogi said. “By helping refugee children to learn and play we will be helping them, and the world, to have a better future.” UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres also stressed the campaign’s benefits. “ninemillion.org is about giving the world’s refugee youth a chance to see beyond their current situation and begin to rebuild their lives,” he said on Tuesday. The campaign has received key support from Nike and Microsoft, both members of UNHCR’s Council of Business Leaders. The Toronto-based international humanitarian organization, Right To Play, is also a partner. The campaign includes a 30-second TV spot featuring Brazilian football legend Ronaldo, who is supporting ninemillion.org in his capacity as a UNDP goodwill ambassador. It also features short films about young refugees in Azerbaijan, Uganda and Thailand who share similar experiences, hopes, ambitions and love of football. The films can be seen on the ninemillion.org website, along with photo galleries, stories and blogs. Two-thirds of the money raised through the campaign will be used for education projects in refugee camps. The remaining third will fund sport and play programmes by Right to Play for refugee youth, with an emphasis on getting girls and young women onto playing fields. To kick off the fund-raising effort, the Nike Foundation announced a US$1 million donation. T-shirts featuring the ninemillion.org logo will be available at select Nike retail outlets worldwide and through the ninemillion.org website, with net proceeds supporting the campaign. Nike has also donated 40,000 balls, designed for use in harsh refugee camp conditions, for distribution to refugee youth. In his final two seasons at Real Madrid, Ronaldo missed a number of games with injuries and weight issues, and with the acquisition of Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2006, he grew further out of favour with the manager Fabio Capello. Speaking in 2017 on Ronaldo’s weight issues and lack of fitness at Madrid, in addition to his ability, Capello summed up the conflicting emotions he has with the Brazilian, “the most difficult player to handle was the best I coached: Ronaldo, il Fenomeno.” In four and a half seasons at the club, Ronaldo scored over a century of goals, becoming the fifth foreigner at Madrid to achieve the feat after Argentine Alfredo Di Stéfano, Hungarian Ferenc Puskás, Mexican Hugo Sánchez and Chilean Iván Zamorano. Although the knee injuries before 2002 meant he “was robbed of the explosiveness of his early years” by the time he signed for Real Madrid, Ronaldo was named by Marca as a member of the “Best foreign eleven in Real Madrid’s history”. While past his 1990s prime, Ronaldo still drew praise from his Madrid colleagues, with Zidane stating, “Without hesitation, Ronaldo is the best player I ever played with or against. He had such an ease with the ball. Every day I trained with him, I saw something different, something new, something beautiful.” Michael Owen, who joined Madrid in 2004, acknowledged that he never got the chance to play with Ronaldo in his prime when “he had absolute blistering speed and strength, mesmerizing foot speed, he was just a blur, he’d be that fast”, before adding, “even in training, he showed more than enough to convince me that I would have loved to play with him at his peak.” Teammates for six months, Van Nistelrooy said, “Ronaldo was the best natural talent I ever played with. His innate ability went beyond anything that I’d ever seen or played alongside.”
