1997-98: O Fenômeno Meets Superman & Other Close Encounters
Brazilian Ronaldo's Italian test and the duels that would define his season
“He is excellent. However, I want to see him in a game where the level of tension is a lot higher than he was used to in Spain and against a really top team.”
Fabio Capello, 1997
It was time. Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima had scored fifty-five goals in fifty-six games for PSV Eindhoven, and forty-seven goals in forty-nine games for Barcelona. The World Cup in France was just twelve months away. The time had arrived in the summer of 1997 for the phenomenon they just called Ronaldo to come and play in Serie A.
The peninsula was already a land replete with attacking talent. The homeland of Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero. It was the host country of Gabriel Batistuta, Oliver Bierhoff and George Weah. Yet, when the twenty-year-old from Rio de Janeiro landed in Italy, he was greeted by much frenzy and fanfare.
At around £50 million, Inter’s patron Massimo Moratti had bet the house that this Brazilian forward was the real deal. But this was not the Netherlands, nor was it Spain. In the coming weeks, the world’s most expensive signing would face adversaries such as Maldini, Montero, Ferrara, Thuram, Cannavaro, Buffon and Nesta.
Reputations were on the line. Inter’s new arrival would have to prove himself in Serie A. And if Italy's domestic league was as tough as it proclaimed to be, then its constellation of stars would have to be seen to contend with Ronaldo.
So how many of these encounters do you remember?