Ronaldo remains at Barcelona

Only a few words kept Ronaldo from moving to Inter
He is now the highest paid footballer in the world
On Tuesday, the world's best footballer, 20-year-old Brazilian Ronaldo, signed a new contract with Barcelona. The media has reported the crazy amount of salary Ronaldo will receive under the new agreement - $70 million over 10 years. This surprised the employees of Kommersant-Daily: it is common knowledge that Ronaldo was not happy with his previous earnings, but even he did not raise the question of such a contract. A call to FC Barcelona clarified the situation: Ronaldo will receive $3.4 million a year and will become the highest paid football player on the planet.

The Brazilian began his football career in Europe at the age of 17 at PSV Eindhoven. He played two seasons in Holland and became the top scorer of the national championship in both. The Brazilian attracted the attention of several teams from different European countries. Barcelona offered better conditions, and at the end of last season he moved to the Catalan club. Both teams were happy. The financially modest Eindhoven received $20 million for Ronaldo, despite the fact that at one time they bought him in Brazil for pennies, and Barcelona, from which World Cup heroes Hristo Stoichkov and Romario left, received a worthy replacement for them.
Ronaldo lived up to Barcelona's expectations. In 1996, he was recognized as the best football player in the world, and this year he has already scored 34 goals, becoming the main contender for the “Golden Boot” (a prize for the player who scored the most in national European championships). Largely thanks to his efforts, Barça reduced the gap from Real to two points in the Spanish Championship and is now once again a real contender for the title of national champion. Two weeks ago, he decided the fate of the Cup Winners' Cup by ensuring that the defenders broke the rules in their own penalty area in the game against him, and converting the penalty.
Naturally, other clubs began to pay attention to Ronaldo and offered much larger sums for the player. Under the contract signed for 8 years, the football player received $1.7 million a year - no football player in Spain has ever received so much. And in order to outbid him, they had to pay $38 million for him. However, many European clubs expressed their readiness to pay this amount and sign a much more tempting contract with the football player. In turn, Ronaldo complained that at the time of his transfer to Barcelona, he was promised more than $1.7 million a year, and asked club president Jose Luis Nunez to increase the amount. Nunez offered to talk about this after the end of the season, and as compensation offered to pay Ronaldo a lump sum of $7 million. However, compensation was delayed.
And again, the footballer’s agents began negotiations with clubs interested in him. The first to fall was the Roman Lazio. Its president, Sergio Cragnoti, thought the financial appetites of the football player and his agents were too exaggerated. Of the other candidates, Inter Milan was the most attractive. On May 19, Ronaldo delivered an ultimatum to Barcelona - either the team signs a new contract, or he leaves. It has already been claimed on the front pages of Italian newspapers that signing a contract with Inter is a settled matter. Club president Massimo Moratti calmed the passions a little. He said that negotiations with agents are underway, but, in his opinion, the footballer will still remain at Barça.
And so it happened. On Tuesday, Nunez issued a statement saying the contract had been signed.
Ronaldo will play in Barcelona for 8 years - up to and including the 2005/2006 season. He will receive $3.4 million annually, which is twice his current salary. In order to buy him out, you will now need to pay $70 million. Many media outlets erroneously reported that this is how much the football player will now earn.
Ronaldo himself was not present at the negotiations. While his agents negotiated with Nunez, he played for the Brazilian national team in a friendly match in Oslo. One of the agents, Giovanni Branchini, said that during the negotiations, which lasted a total of nine hours, there were moments when it seemed that they would break down, and then Ronaldo would certainly have gone to Inter. It turned out that one of the main problems was created by that same seven-million dollar compensation: Barcelona offered to transfer the money through a shell company from the Virgin Islands and thus evade paying taxes; Ronaldo's agents insisted that the payment be made in Spain. In the end, we agreed to do everything according to the law.
GRANT Kommersant-KOSYAN

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 79 dated May 29, 1997, p. 15

Authors:

Grant Kosyan