Ronaldo saw in the New Year wearing Flamengo colours — the club that wants him to return home after 1 5 years of endless wandering around Europe. “Out of the question; he is finishing his contract here,” insists Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani. “I have never entered into negotiations with Flamengo and don’t intend to,” replies Ronaldo, who earns EUR 500,000 a month in Milan. “My contract will be expiring in the summer. 1 would very much like to prolong it and Milan would too. But I’ll have to earn that by performing well.”
Time could be running out, as he kept suffering from recurrent thigh problems in the early matches of the second part of the season, confirming fears that he is an obsolescent model who is too unfit to keep pace with the rhythm of modern football. Whereas Achilles feared his heel, Ronaldo fears his thigh. It is not particularly noticeable because yet another Brazilian is causing a furore at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium in addition to Kaka — Alexandre Pato.
“Ronaldo will continue to perform well for years; I’ve no doubt about that,” rhapsodised the 18-year-old wonder boy, who netted three goals in his first four games, rather naively about his lifelong idol. “Pato will become the new Ronaldo,” remarked Kaka for his part. People often make comparisons with bygone heroes. Kaka casually remarked that it would not hurt Ronaldo if he went to bed a little earlier, like himself from time to time.
Berlusconi, for his part, has predicted a brilliant career for Ronaldo until the age of 40. At present, no-one seems to know where that will happen. One thing is for sure: the Brazilian is currently a divisive influence on the AC Milan squad. Some worship him like a messiah whereas others regard him as a pathological enigma. A few weeks ago, coach Ancelotti put it in a nutshell. “Today, he can’t play. And tomorrow? No idea. With him you have to plan from day to day.”

What started as a blossoming friendship in the second half of last season, with seven goals in 14 games after Ronaldo’s transfer from Real Madrid to Milan for EUR 7.5m (paying EUR 3m of it himself), has turned into an irritating waiting game. But Ronaldo is no stranger to agony.
In 1999, he was out of action after sustaining a serious knee injury with Inter Milan. During his comeback six months later, he tore his patella tendon after six minutes of play. He lay weeping on the pitch and spent almost a year undergoing a variety of treatment and building up his strength. “I felt abandoned,” he says looking back. “But football is like that; it has a very short memory.”
Too true: memories of the best striker of his age have faded fast. What have remained are his feuds with Inter president and mentor Massimo Moratti.
In 2002, Ronaldo insisted on a transfer to Real Madrid and promptly made countless enemies among Inter fans. In Madrid he finally lost the power game to tough disciplinarian Fabio Capello. “I have never seen a less motivated player in training sessions than Ronaldo,” affirmed the Italian. “Capello is muddleheaded,” retorted Ronaldo. “He also called me the best player he had ever had. He has been in the football game for too long and doesn’t know what he’s saying.” Thereupon Ronaldo joined rivals AC Milan, much to the disgust of Moratti and the Inter fans. The controversies remain in everyone’s long-term memory but the recollections of his two goals in the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ final that Brazil ultimately won, his record number of 1 5 goals in the FIFA World Cup “and spectacular dribbles down the pitch have long been overshadowed. “Milan have installed turnstiles at the San Siro because of new safety regulations,” joked a popular Italian cabarettist a while ago. “The only problem is that Ronaldo can’t get through them.” How true: football really does have a very short memory.

But he did not set much store by the scales and set about delivering doleful tales of woe and ambiguous half-truths to the media. Ronaldo’s fate has been the subject of gossip and controversy for years. He has only himself to blame for the rumours about his womanising and nocturnal club excursions but this time it was not entirely his fault. His subsequent peregrinations read like an advertising campaign for air miles. His trips included a visit to Professor Marc Martens in Antwerp and an independent doctorin Rio de Janeiro, Professor Jose Luiz Runco, who allegedly injected Ronaldo’s own blood into the damaged muscle, causing a heated debate in Italy about doping. After a nerve-wracking information campaign (“Ronaldo to play again soon”, “No-one knows when he will play again”, “Ronaldo will soon be back”), it took the Brazilian 121 days to make a lacklustre comeback in Cagliari. Three days later, he injured himself again — just warming up — for the UEFA Champions League. The stuff of sit-coms.
Ronaldo called this season “a completely new start to regain my old self”. As a symbol of his resolve, he created a new look with a shock of curls and intellectual spectacles. The new Ronaldo brand was supposed to reflect a serious approach but more often than not it gave rise to derision. “It makes him look even uglier; I’ll have to recommend my hairdresser to him,” joked club president Silvio Berlusconi, who had also wondered whether he should despatch the striker to Lourdes, the place of pilgrimage in France, to try to make him fit for work.
And the new rastafarian look this year caused unbridled amusement. “Just sublime,” remarked coach Carlo Ancelotti with a wink. “My own son would be banned from sitting at the table with such a hairdo.” Ronaldo’s latest advertising for hair growth ointment: “Try it out; it’s phenomenal!” came over rather as a farce about a fading star than an act of self-deprecation.