Matthew Ashton/EMPICS via Getty Images
“He [Ronaldo] was more talented [than Cristiano Ronaldo] and if he took care of himself like the Portuguese does, his performances would have been even more incredible.”
-Fabio Capello
The original Ronaldo will go down as one of the greatest soccer players of all-time, and if it weren’t for pestering weight issues and lack of fitness (especially in his last two years at Madrid), he may have been the undisputed GOAT.
But the Brazilian liked to party.
Former Spanish defender and Ronaldo teammate Ivan Helguera admitted as much in an Instagram Live interview with Mister Chip.
Via The Sun:
“Beckham, Zidane and Figo were great professionals.
“Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos, on the other hand, liked to go out a little more. But they certainly didn’t do it every night.
“It happened if we played on a Saturday and, if we won, we all went out to celebrate. But it is absolutely not true that we went out on Friday or Saturday before important games.
“I remember a birthday party at Ronaldo’s house, which he later sold to Sergio Ramos, where buses full of girls began to arrive. I was with my wife and we decided to leave, as did Figo.”
Helguera added Ronaldo, 43, had: “Another party when we won LaLiga. It was also massive. I stayed late for that one.
“Ronaldo was like that.”
This is far from the only anecdote of Ronaldo letting his hair down.
In 2017, Jack Carroll, a sports reporter for The Guardian, recalled his summer of 1997 when he traveled to Bolivia for the Copa America. Ronaldo was just 20 at the time, but already the best player in the world — fresh off a FIFA Player of the Year and on the cusp of his first Ballon d’Or.
Slowly, I realised I was sitting next to Ronaldo, Denílson and Flávio Conceição. I clocked Ronaldo again later as I staggered out the bar, counting at least three girls on his lap. Suddenly he didn’t look so stressed. I would like to say this was an isolated incident, a one-off, but no. I followed all but one of Brazil’s games (missed due to an exceptional headache/altitude sickness/hangover) and the same pattern emerged. Bar became club, club became dodgy club, Brazil national team would turn up, and Ronaldo would be flattened by gorgeous Bolivian ladies of all sizes and shapes. The boy was relentless.
Tough to blame him.