As you have probably heard, unless you frequent one of the 40% of all newspaper websites that buried the story under an ongoing Gary Neville live blog, Ronaldo retired yesterday. I wrote a small tribute for Slate, which started as a Run of Play post and which I hope you’ll read. It’s about, I guess, how he fits in with the other great players of his generation (in terms of meaning, not in terms of top 10 lists) and how the accepted narrative of his career misses the point (because it’s told in terms of top 10 lists). But mainly it’s about this.
Anyway, take a look.
Read More: Ronaldo, Time Doth Transfix
by Brian Phillips · February 15, 2011
Reading your slate tribute, and watching this incredible goal brings back many memories, but most about that wonderful, chaotic, schizophrenical team that was the FC Barcelona of the 96-97 season.
After years of Cruyff command, Barcelona went all crazy and bought Ronaldo, Geovanni, Blanc, Baia, Stoichkov, Couto, Pizzi, Luis Enrique to add to Figo, De La Peña, Guardiola.
Then they got Bobby Robson to try and make sense of it all. As the instructions were in Catalan, Robson took Mourinho with him.
The Barcelona squad was as well built as an Ikea dinner table assembled with paper glue… Baia could not defend a shot on goal; Luis Enrique was a “make-shift” right Back; Ronaldo scored goals; Stoichkov pouted on the left side; Geovanni underperformed in the middle; Figo played on the right and passed to Ronaldo; Nadal, Popescu, Couto and Blanc watched all this from the best seats in the house, and were in such awe and admiration that they couldn’t really be bothered to defend; Guardiola and de La Peña juggled the catalan symbol in the middle of the field all the time putting in perfect passes for Ronaldo runs.
Adding to the crazy atmosphere, it was the first year of the Bosman Rules, Real Madrid bought Roberto Carlos, Suker, Mijatovic, Panucci, Seedorf, Illgner and Secretario (yes, the worst Real Madrid Player EVER!!), and named Fabio Capelo coach.
It was the start of Galatico Era, 4 years before Florentino Perez. Football was never the same, and just to make sure that it was the most irrational year ever in football history, Atletico and Barcelona played the most insane game ever, in the spanish cup.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SgnGwJMrGc
They were the best of times, they were the worst of times…
Brian that slate writeup was fantastic and your description of Ronaldo’s game with Pato makes me desperately want to watch it. I never got to see it the first time.
I couldn’t agree more Brian – Ronaldo and that goal belong in a top 5 list, not top 10.
The idea of a guy who hadn’t played for three whole seasons coming into a World Cup, scoring eight goals and taking Brazil to victory even though he still seemed kind of rusty is just extraordinary. It showed how great he was, as much as the 1997 season. You’re right, he was able to adapt to the changing circumstances of his body (knee problems, less acceleration).
Even wankers like Nicholas Anelka were awed, I remember an interview in France Football in 2001 or so where Anelka said that there was only one greatest, and that was Ronaldo. He’d been on the treatment table for two years or so and I’d all but forgotten him, even though his posters were still being sold and even the women around me who knew nothing about soccer knew who Ronaldo was.
Even though he kept deliviering everywhere he went I kept wanting more, just like the sportwriters. I kept having the feeling that his goals were a bonus that could end at any moment (fears of injury breakdowns) and was surprised that he kept them coming, and despite 2002 I wanted him to score a hat-trick in a Champions League final and be there at the business end for a club, which he didn’t manage. He looked like doing it for Real in 2003 but then he got a niggling injury and Juve beat them.
I think summer 2004 was his last time as an elite player (in particular the three-penalty match against Argentina), but he was even galvanising Milan as late as 2007.
Not to be a prat who reduces a feeling to the top 10 lists, but I think he was the greatest pure goalscorer of all time. I also didn’t mean to write so much but he fascinates and thrills me, much more than Zidane and co.
@joao jorge Whew – thanks for reminding me of that Barça- Atlético game. I was at the stadium – probably the best soccer night in my life.
What a player, what a goalscorer! The only thing that comes to mind when anyone talks about Ronaldo is “Gooooooooooooooooal!”. Boy, what a goalscorer!
I know this is condemning me definitively to one-trackism, but I have to recall seeing the answering joy we all felt on experiencing Ronaldo’s football, at a very unlikely moment. It was the Milan derby, and Ronaldo was warming up for Milan before the game. Hovering around him like a little boy waiting for acknowledgment, half-smiling, turning away, looking back, and edging a little closer, was Inter’s big star, a man already in the running for capocannoniere, a ‘fuck you’ in human form, Zlatan Ibrahimovic. When Zlatan had joined Inter he spoke about how excited he was to be playing for a club where Ronaldo had once played; seeing the look on his face, so completely unlike his usual self on the pitch, it was perfectly easy to believe it.
I think there is an entire generation of footballers that Ronaldo inspired because of that joy you spoke of in your (superb) column. I’m not sure Zidane or Beckham, for all their wonders, have ever inspired, through sheer love, the way he has.
I think, for me, he was the greatest player in the greatest game of modern football- the 2003 UEFA Champions league match between Real and Manchester United. Three perfect goals, and a particularly fine final one. Those were two brilliant teams who really did play their best in that second leg (Real was pretty good in the first leg, mostly because ManU were stunned somewhat by Figo’s unreal first goal), and there was simply no stopping Ronaldo.
Top drawer.
I loved the part about Pato’s debut. I can just imagine it: Ronaldo bounding around – that toothy grin splitting his head in half – coaxing his little countryman to score.
great Slate article. in addition to the joy with which Ronaldo played, the exuberance, it is hard to imagine a more technically and physically gifted striker. the unreal speed, power, explosiveness and ability to change direction … married to the close control, first touch, lethal finishing, and vision. still the prototype for the “modern” striker, who has yet to be approached. in that way i think he is like how Michael Jordan is to NBA guards.