Ronaldo Fenômeno melts when remembering debut for Cruzeiro

On May 25, 1993, in the city of Poços de Caldas, Ronaldo Nazario of Lima, aged just 16, he debuted as a professional soccer player. the match between cruise It is Caldense marked the beginning of the trajectory of a world football idol, twice the best player in the world and champion of the 1994 and 2002 World Cups.

For Betfair, Ronaldo recalled his debut for Raposa and described his first moments as a professional experienced exactly 30 years ago in that 1-0 victory for Cruzeiro over Caldense, also talking about his new phase as majority shareholder in the club Minas Gerais.

“It’s been a long time (laughs), it’s so nice to remember this moment, this phase where I started my career with many doubts and uncertainties about the future. But having been called up by Cruzeiro and being able to start my career here is really a source of great pride for me, and today, returning to the situation I am in, just shows a very beautiful story between Cruzeiro and me.”

Hired by Raposa in January 1993, coming from São Cristóvão, Ronaldo made his debut for Cruzeiro at a time when the club was a finalist in the Copa do Brasil and spared its main players by putting a team with young players in the Campeonato Mineiro. The Betfair ambassador recalled his debut in the city of Poços de Caldas.

“It was that butterflies in my stomach, an unusual situation of being on the field for the first time and fulfilling a childhood dream, I don’t remember exactly how my performance was, but I certainly remember that feeling of realizing a dream of being in a giant club like Cruzeiro , debuting as a professional, it was a life goal and he was already achieving it at the age of 16”, Ronaldo told Betfair.

Ronaldo also spoke about what it was like to receive the proposal to transfer from small São Cristóvão to Cruzeiro. “It was a mixture of a lot of pride with a lot of fear and a lot of insecurity, a lot goes through the mind of a 16-year-old because he was assuming an immense responsibility of wearing the Cruzeiro shirt, for millions of fanatical fans, it was an incredible moment for me, for sure”, stated Ronaldo, Betfair ambassador.

At the time known as ‘Ronaldinho’, the former player said how he reconciled his athlete routine and his student life at the age of 16. “I just thought about being a football player, I dedicated myself a lot to that. Unfortunately, I made a minimal effort at school to pass the year, since my mother pegged me to pass the year to be able to play football, I had to make a lot of effort, but football was always my main goal.”

Now the majority shareholder of SAF do Cruzeiro, Ronaldo scored 56 goals in 58 games for the club in just over a year playing as a professional. After his time in Belo Horizonte, he was traded to PSV in the Netherlands at the end of the 1994 World Cup, when he was among the 23 named four-time champions for the Brazilian national team.

Ronaldo Nazário ends the exclusive interview for Betfair expressing what are the differences between being a professional athlete and today being a manager of the Minas Gerais club. “Football is the great passion of my life, and today understanding much more about the football industry and having spent part of my life as a player, this gives me a lot of credit for being in my position and being able to make the best choices for the club, it’s a different challenge, however challenging that motivates me more and more to grow on this side”, concluded Ronaldo to Betfair.

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