98: What hit Ronaldo before the final?

Celso de Campos Jr — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:53:00 GMT

Nobody really knows what happened with Ronaldo before the 1998 World Cup final. But that hasn’t stopped the wild speculation, from conspiracy theorists to shock-jocks, politicians and team-mates…

Edmundo’s sponsor allegations
Edmundo, who was on the team sheet before Ronaldo’s return to the line-up, claimed to have witnessed his fellow striker’s ‘fit’ after a cry for help from Roberto Carlos. After this, he claims, Ronaldo took a nap before being whisked off to hospital for tests.

Benched, ‘The Animal’ later suggested that Nike influenced Ronaldo’s return to the team. “Nike’s people were there 24 hours a day, as if they were member of the technical staff. It’s a huge power. That’s all I can say.”

The mystery medic
Some players claim that team doctor Lidio Toledo started weeping when he arrived at Ronaldo’s room. Toledo denies this, claiming Ronaldo was conscious when he reached him, but breathing heavily and with saliva around this mouth.

The player was then allegedly sent to hospital for neurological tests, which everyone thought would rule him out of playing. The tests came back normal and Toledo, another medic, coach Mario Zagallo and a determined Ronaldo decided the between them that he was fit enough to play.

The nervous breakdown theory
One of Brazil’s main newspapers claimed that Ronaldo had a nervous breakdown during the cup. Folha de S Paulo wrote that Ronaldo was displaying signs of depression a week before the final, smashing a bike against a wall. On the eve of the game, Ronnie had a “nervous crisis”. Toledo entered the room and left crying, but Ronaldo wasn’t medicated because of the risk of doping.

They claim that technical co-ordinator Zico opposed fielding Ronaldo, and that the silent departure of the team from the hotel (as opposed to the usual samba party), and absence of a warm-up, indicated a player feud. One group, allegedly led by Dunga, backed Ronaldo’s presence, while another, said to be led by Leonardo, opposed it.

"Football, eh?"

The FIFA conspiracy
Now for the really barmy theories: an e-mail allegedly written by a source at TV Globo states that Brazil “sold” the World Cup to FIFA for a cash fee of $23million.

The idea was to let France win to please new FIFA present Sepp Blatter, and help the French people forget their social problems. FIFA then promised Brazil that the Selecao would have its path “softened” to win the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, and that Brazil would host a World Cup in the next decade. Hang on a minute...

The fateful injection
A few years after the fiasco, motor-mouthed pundit Jorge Kajuru put forward another theory: Ronaldo had freaked out after having an allergic reaction to an injection to his knee from doctor Toledo. People who believed Kajuru at the time wouldn’t admit it: after all, the crackpot pundit regularly rants on TV about people “taking it up the *rse”. Crikey.

The sex scandal
According to rock-solid sources (street corner whispers, pub hearsay, etc) Ronaldo’s breakdown was prompted by an affair between his then girlfriend at the time, Susana Werner – now the wife of Selecao keeper Julio Cesar – and a Brazilian TV journalist.

The Nike ultimatum
In 2000, a Parliamentary Inquiry Commission was set up to investigate the contract between the Brazilian FA and Nike. One of the initial areas of investigation was to be the influence of the Oregon giant on Ronaldo’s final appearance. But the whole matter was fudged. One politician blandly asked Ronaldo who was responsible for marking Zidane. “Will it really help?” replied the striker. The commission closed without finding any answers.

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78: Boney, baldy, bendy and bonkers

Rob Carey — Tue, 25 May 2010 08:09:00 GMT

Kicking off as Boney M’s Rivers of Babylon stood at No.1 in the charts, Argentina 78 was a mysterious wonderland of ticker tape, cigarette-smoking managers, exotic kits, unrecognisable names and great mops of curly hair. And that was without Kevin Keegan.

After getting over the realisation that England weren’t in the competition – again – Britain relied on Scotland to do us proud. The Scots were on the march with Ally’s army, confidence high, and were certain they were coming home with the cup (because Ally McLeod made a promise Rafa would be proud of). But someone forget to let Peru and Iran know the plan: they took four points off the Scots in the first two games.

However, Scotland managed to spare their blushes by nearly qualifying for the second stage, beating the mighty Holland 3-2 in their final game. The game caused hundreds of Subbuteo Scotland players to be brutally disfigured, receiving receding hairlines via penknife surgery after the follically-challenged Archie Gemmill scored one of the greatest ever World Cup goals, jinking past what seemed like the entire Holland side and coolly chipping the advancing keeper.

The new official Adidas Tango match ball hypnotised us youngsters, partly because of its wonderful pattern, but mainly because it was named after a fizzy drink. Nelinho, like most of his Brazilian team mates, could bend the ball like a banana and against Italy he belted in an unbelievable swerving goal with the outside of his right boot.

Children could be seen replicating the strike on the school playgrounds the next day with their own “Tango”, which wasn’t hard to do as those days the only available balls were made of plastic and flew through the air like a burst balloon.

While Scotland were failing to live up to their own hype, Britain’s other representative, Welsh ref Clive Thomas, was doing his usual job of attempting to wrest the limelight from the players – stunningly successfully.

In the final minute of Brazil’s game against Sweden, Zico nodded home the winner from a 90th-minute corner – but Thomas claimed he had blown his whistle after the ball had left the Brazilian’s head and before it had entered the Swedish net. It was no surprise that the Welshman wasn't appointed for the final – a rare moment of common sense from FIFA.

Common sense was certainly missing from Peruvian keeper Ramón “El Loco” Quiroga. In the final minutes of his side’s game with Poland, Quiroga made his way up the field in search of an equaliser but was caught out by a quick clearance. Still in his opponents' half he took actions into his own hands, rugby-tackling the Polish attacker and picking up, rem, a yellow card.

The Argentinian-born keeper was never too far away from the headlines. With hosts Argentina needing to beat Peru by four clear goals to progress to the final, he picked the ball out of his net six times, and the Argentines were on their way to their first World Cup victory.

As Olivia Newton John claimed No.1 spot in the charts with You’re The One That I Want, the hosts got their hands on their object of desire as Holland’s total football couldn’t contain the firepower of Luque and Kempes and the hosts won 3-1 in extra time.

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World Cup Wonderland : Zico

98: What hit Ronaldo before the final?

78: Boney, baldy, bendy and bonkers