Ronaldo Legend 2

A young Brazilian football crazy

The first game Ronaldo played for Sao Cristovao was on August 12, 1990, against Tomazinho. He was only 13, but still scored 3 goals.

Then he gave up school the next year to concentrate as a professional player. His coach Alfredo Sampaio said: 'he was a good kid who was always chatting and laughing ...... his only weaknesses were his heading and his total disinterest in defending.'

Ronaldo scored 36 goals in 54 games. Sampaio said: 'when things were going badly for the team, I always shouted to my lads to give the ball to Ronaldo. He did the rest.'

Then, Ronaldo was offered a trial by Flamengo. But he didn't get noticed at all. He didn't have enough money to get the bus there on a regular basis. So he gave up after one session. To make things worse, he got mugged on the way home and lost his watch!

Ronaldo remain stayed at Sao Cristovao. But his performance was so well that he earned a call-up to Brazil's under 17 side for the South American championships in Colombia in Feb 1993. Ronaldo became the leading scorer with 8 goals at the end of the game.

That made Ronaldo being asked to join the first division club, Cruzeiro, in march 1993 for £30000. His mum could now stop working.

Unfortunately, his family had split up later, and his mum had to go out to work again. Sampaio said: 'because of this, Ronaldo often turned up late for training, but before I could get mad he used to flash that goofy smile at me and it would break my heart.'

Despite of that, both his parents supported him. They prepared every things for Ronaldo. As a result, the club rewarded them by moving them to a bigger house near the club.

Ronaldo began his play for Cruzeiro on May 25, 1993. He was impressed by the coach, Pinheiro: 'he scored goals that only a genius can.'

In the Brazilian national championship, Ronaldo scored 49 goals in his first 50 professional games. (Pele only managed 41) including a record 5 in 1 game.

Ronaldo could then move to a new apartment in Belo Horizonte. He only had 1 suitcase! The waiter of a local restaurant saw him and gave Ronaldo an entire dinner service.

Owing to his fantastic performance, Ronaldo got the call-up to the full Brazil national squad. He made his first debut as a sub against Argentina for Bebeto on March 23, 1994. Coach Zagallo said: 'pay attention to this kid. He's going to be the next Pele.'

Though Ronaldo didn't play during the finals, he still attracted a lot of attention. He signed his first sponsorship deal with Nike and, agreed to transfer to PSV Eindhoven of Holland for £4M!