Ronaldo Nazário: The R9 Story, World Cup & Where He Is Now

What really happened to Ronaldo the night before the 1998 World Cup final?

How did the most feared striker in the world wake up on the biggest day of his career unable to be himself? Was it illness? Stress? A medical condition? Or was there something more sinister behind the scenes?

For nearly three decades, football fans have debated what happened inside Brazil’s team hotel before the final against France.

This is the story of Ronaldo Nazário—R9, O Fenômeno.

Born on September 18, 1976, in Rio de Janeiro, Ronaldo grew up in a modest neighbourhood, honing his skills on the streets, often with a makeshift ball crafted from socks.

His rapid emergence led him to be compared to Pele. He scored 44 goals in 47 games for Cruzeiro and won the Brazilian Cup and the Minas Gerais championship before he was barely old enough to shave.

At the 1994 World Cup, Ronaldo was just 17 years old, an unused substitute included in the Brazilian squad that won the tournament.  He held a winner’s medal even though he never touched the ball. But that made him angry and hungry.  He filed that feeling away somewhere deep, and he kept it there for eight years.

Ronaldo joined Barcelona in 1996 for a then world-record transfer fee. At 20 years old, he was named the FIFA World Player of the Year, the youngest recipient of the award in history.  A year later, Inter Milan broke the world transfer record again to sign him. He won FIFA World Player of the Year a second consecutive time, the first person ever to win it back to back.

By 21, Ronaldo Nazario was not just the best striker in the world. He was redefining what a striker could be.

Brazil arrived at the 1998 World Cup final as favourites. At just 21 years old, Ronaldo had already established himself as the most feared striker on the planet, dazzling defenders with a pace, power and sensational skill.

Then, hours before kick-off, everything changed.

Roberto Carlos burst out of a shared hotel room, convinced his friend and teammate was having a fit and desperate for help. Team physio Lidio Toledo responded quickly and recognised it as a medical emergency. He was rushed to a nearby Paris hospital and  underwent examinations until doctors determined he had suffered a seizure.

Despite this, he was cleared to play later that day.

Ronaldo appeared at the stadium stating he was over whatever had caused him to fall ill, and demanded to play.

He played. But the man was a ghost of himself. Brazil lost 3-0 to France. And the questions that followed, what happened in that room, what was the real cause, why he was allowed to play at all! To this day, only a select group of people truly know.

Then the knees came.

In 2000, during the Coppa Italia final, having just returned from an earlier knee injury, Ronaldo lasted only six minutes before suffering a complete rupture of the tendons in his kneecap. The sight of the Brazilian superstar collapsing to the ground in agony remains one of the most emotional moments in football history. Overcome with despair, Ronaldo covered his face to hide his tears.

It was his third career-threatening injury. The renowned Milan Fitness Lab had little hope for his recovery.

Then Ronaldo became the comeback kid!

The big question at the 2002 World Cup centred on whether Ronaldo could exorcise the ghosts of four years earlier. Armed with a curious haircut involving a triangular wedge on the front of his head, which he later revealed was a deliberate distraction from a leg injury he was carrying, Ronaldo was the main attraction.

Ronaldo carried Brazil on his shoulder and took the team to the final where they faced Germany.

After battling back from serious injuries, he had proven that he was still capable of greatness. He scored two goals in the final against Germany and finished the tournament as top scorer with eight goals, silencing his critics and earning the respect of fans and peers alike.

The 2002 World Cup was, without a doubt, his tournament.

You may remember watching him weep on the pitch at full time.

That was not pain

That was exorcising demons of whatever happened in France four years earlier

That year, Ronaldo won the Laureus Comeback of the Year award that year.  He won his third FIFA World Player of the Year.

In 2006, despite a discreet tournament performance, Ronaldo scored three goals and became the all-time top scorer in World Cup history with 15 goals.

Today, Ronaldo is 48 years old and has  revealed plans to run for the presidency of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).

Isitoshe,

When Cruzeiro, the first professional club where he played was drowning in over $200 million of debt and in danger of disappearing, Ronaldo stepped in. He bought their soccer department for approximately $78 million, stabilised the club, and sold his stake for nearly $117 million with Cruzeiro back in Brazil’s top division.

In Brazil they call him O Fenômeno.