Ronaldo buys the club where he started playing football
The former Brazilian international, Ronaldo, announced Friday that he had bought Cruzeiro, which gave the 2002 World Cup champion his first professional chance, but that he has been playing for two seasons in the local second division.
"I am very happy with this deal," said the 45-year-old in a video posted on social media by club president Sergio Santos Rodriguez.
Ronaldo added, carrying the club's shirt with the number 9 on his back and the name "Phenomeno", that is, the phenomenon that the former Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter and Milan player was famous for, that "I have a lot to return to Cruzeiro, to take Cruzeiro to where he deserves."
He predicted that "we have a lot of work ahead of us. I ask the fans to reconnect with the club again and go to the stadium because we will need a lot of strength and unity. We have a lot of work and ambition to make Cruzeiro great again."
And the "Globo Esporte" website reported that Ronaldo will pay 400 million riyals (about 60 million euros) to become the largest shareholder in the club.
Since 2018, Ronaldo has owned a controlling stake in Spanish club Valladolid, which was relegated to the second division last season.
Ronaldo, who is from Rio de Janeiro, joined Cruzeiro, who is based in Belo Horizonte, in his professional debut in 1993 when he was 16 years old.
And he scored 56 goals in 58 matches he played in the club's shirt, which opened the door for him to be in the Brazil squad for the 1994 World Cup in the United States, where he won the winner's medal without playing any minute.
After the World Cup, which Brazil won on penalties at the expense of Italy, Cruzeiro sold Ronaldo to PSV Eindhoven before imposing himself as one of the best players in the world in the Barcelona shirt, then Inter, Real Madrid and Milan.
And he returned to his country in 2009 to defend the colors of Corinthians, who retired from playing in its ranks in 2011.
In the 2002 World Cup, Ronaldo scored eight goals in seven matches and played the main role in leading Brazil to the title.
Ronaldo was chosen to win the FIFA World Player of the Year award three times, and he won the Ballon d'Or twice.
Cruzeiro's last title in the Brazilian League dates back to 2014, when he won it for the second season in a row, while he won the Brazilian Cup twice in a row in 2017 and 2018, but he was relegated to the second division at the end of the 2019 season.
The club was close last season even to leaving the second division, before To save the situation by finishing the championship in fourteenth place.
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