Real Madrid turned down the chance to sign Ronaldinho because he was "too ugly".
Ronaldinho shoves jibes back in Real's faces
Real Madrid turned down the chance to sign Ronaldinho because he was "too ugly". They'll be regretting that now, writes Sid Lowe.
Monday April 26, 2004
Ronaldinho: having the last laugh now
According to one heavyweight member of Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez's entourage, Barcelona's goofily grinning Brazilian Ronaldinho is "too ugly" to be a galáctico. Never mind that he is outrageously talented, wonderful to watch, and Spain's most impressive performer this year. Or that Roberto Carlos insists he is "the No1, as good as Ronaldo and Rivaldo at just 24." Or that Iván Helguera, one of the few honest footballers left, says: "Ronaldinho is more than good enough to play for Madrid."
Never mind all that. Pérez claimed that Madrid "never" went for Ronaldinho, but we all know what "never" means in Pérezish (especially if it is repeated seven times) and Madrid did indeed think about the Brazilian in the summer - only to decide he was a little rough on the eye and heavy on the pocket. So it was that a club bigwig told El País's Diego Torres: "How ugly is Ronaldinho?! There was no point buying him, it wasn't worth it. He's so ugly that he'd sink you as a brand. Between Ronaldinho and Beckham, I'd go for Beckham a hundred times. Just look how handsome Beckham is, the class he has, the image. The whole of Asia has fallen in love with us because of Beckham. Ronaldinho is too ugly."
Which is rather comic coming from the club trying to promote Juanfran to the first team. More importantly, it sums up much of what's wrong with Real Madrid; something that was amply demonstrated at the Santiago Bernabéu last night as Barça faced "Galactic" Real Madrid in what the press described as Star Wars, or - and here comes the cunning pun - "War of the Galaxies", as it's known in Spain.
But while Ronaldinho may have been playing Ja-Ja Binks, he has the personality, charm and charisma to have proven a marketing phenomenon at Barcelona, where he has sold more shirts than any other player over the last four years (put together). Far from sinking brands, he enhances them: who else would smile to the cameras as he does a million kick-ups while climbing the stone steps of Spain's most holy shrine, the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela, pausing to complete the trick with an overhead kick at the top - smashing a window in the process? And still have the charm to melt the Archbishop, who didn't even mind (who asked for an autograph, in fact)?
And there were to be more great tricks last night when, with just five minutes left, Ronaldinho produced an outrageous scooped pass which left Xavi Hernández completely free in Madrid's penalty area, where he leapt and scored a neat outside-of-the-foot lobbed volley to make it 2-1 to Barcelona - securing their first Bernabéu derby win for seven years. It was also their fifteenth game without defeat, carrying them to just four points behind their bitterest rivals, who they had trailed by 28 points at the turn of the year.
No wonder the pro-Barça press is going wild. The Catalan daily Sport - that's a Catalan daily called Sport, not a Catalan edition of the 'bus on the moon' UK phenomenon - screams "¡FANTASTICO!", while Mundo Deportivo gleefully declares: "Take that, Madrid!"
Yet, in truth it wasn't Barça's best performance of the season. And it certainly wasn't Ronaldinho's. He stayed surprisingly wide, where he was superbly marshaled by Míchel Salgado - asked to do a man-to-man job by Carlos Queiroz - and, despite some isolated and insane skills, thrills and fancy flicks, didn't really have a major impact until he began to drift inside during the final twenty minutes. But, then, as Sport put it: "A second's magic was enough".
And, they might have added, a second's madness. Madrid were extremely unlucky to lose an incredible match, where they boasted two thirds of the 42 (yes, forty-two) shots - one of which Roberto Carlos thundered in from all of six yards, only for Carles Puyol to block with his head, again proving the infinite value of comedy wig protection.
"Puyol must be the only player in the world who gets shot in the head and just stands there," whimpered Madrid's sporting director Jorge Valdano. And even though Kluivert got an equaliser with his first touch, the turning point - much to the glee of Barça fans - was a moment's red card-inducing madness from Luis Figo. Already booked for complaining that a lightening quick save from Victor Valdés had gone over the line (it hadn't), he flew crazily into Puyol, studs up, with twenty minutes left.
"Thanks Figo", giggled this morning's Sport, finally achieving closure. "It's nice of you to do Madrid such a huge favour. Instead of renouncing his status as a Barcelona soci, president Laporta should make Luis an honorary member Maybe he's still a Barça player at heart; maybe he decided to help us out subliminally".
Maybe not: Figo was furious, accusing referee Alfonso Pérez Burrull of being "arrogant". "He came here with bad intentions right from the start", fumed Figo, that always furrowed brow practically becoming a canyon, tears running down his cheeks. "He didn't blow anything at all in our favour - he knew what he was doing and it was he who decided the game. This keeps happening."
All of which was rather ironic for the man who once celebrated a Barça triumph by dyeing his hair purple and red, grabbing the microphone on a balcony over the Plaça San Jaume and shouting: "White cry babies, salute the champions!" The clamouring culés below loved it; Figo was one of them.
No more. And the heartbreak of losing Figo is finally subsiding: there is a new, if rather ugly King in town.
http://football.guardian.co.uk/continental/story/0,8018,1203797,00.html