Between real stories or urban legends, the charm of the transfer window also lies in these files linking the biggest football stars to our Ligue 1. Negotiations missed, lack of clairvoyance or simple bad luck, back on all these big names that could have landed in our championship. Third episode this Monday with PSG, on the verge of offering the huge Ronaldo.
The context
The PSV Ronaldo is the same one that will print collective memory, trophies and muscles less. Ronaldo Luiz de Lima, the real Ronaldo, is already a freight train launched at full speed combined with the dexterity of a ballet dancer. Each acceleration is a stab. And his ball handling does not leave the slightest chance to his bodyguards already on his heels. As in Cruzeiro, the young boy and his teeth of happiness landed at 17 years old in Eindhoven in 1994 make the defenses dance and thread the goals like pearls. Thirty in 33 matches during his first season in the Dutch league, far ahead of the 18 units of his first pursuer, a certain Patrick Kluivert.
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League 1
The L1 missed them by almost nothing: Lewandowski, the head start and … the eternal regrets
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He ended up in the Netherlands with a World Cup under his arm but no minutes spent on the grounds of the American World Cup. At this time already, the PSG has it in its radars. “Ricardo, who did all the preparation for the World Cup, and Raï, of course, come back from the United States telling me that they have a 17-year-old phenomenon who can do everything“, informs us Jean-Michel Moutier then sports director of PSG. So why Paris does not get hold of it as soon as it leaves Brazil?”There were agreements between Philips (note: the Eindhoven club is owned by the Dutch company) and Brazilian clubs. It was all part of a career plan like Romario before him. There was nothing we could do.“
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Ronaldo in the colors of PSV Eindhoven
Getty Images Credits
Ronaldo must therefore be the successor of the mega-star of the moment, Romario, incarnation of a Brazil on the top of the world and just left PSV for Barça (well, well …) a year earlier. R9 is not yet Il Fenomeno, but its successful adaptation to Europe is already making it a phenomenon. Only his still slender body under his much too wide “Philips” jersey and his curly fleece will disappear from the memories. His second season in the Netherlands is less sparkling. A knee joint problem is already taking him away from the field. He will finish his Batavian experience with 55 goals in 57 games.
Paris does not take offense at the health concerns of the Brazilian. In the summer of 1996, PSG intends to take action. It must be said that he has arguments. The club of the capital, which remained on three European semi-finals, has just won the Cup of Cups, finishes second in Division 1 and settles, thanks to the power of its shareholder Canal Plus, among the teams which count on the Old continent. No complex to feed therefore vis-à-vis the best. Patrice Loko, Julio Cesar Dely Valdes and Pascal Nouma share the point of Luis Fernandez’s eleven. Rather effective center-crossers but who do not exceed 16 goals in a season. It lacks a large caliber, a headliner in the offensive sector as much as, that summer, Paris will lose its top scorer, Youri Djorkaeff (20 units) who goes to Inter Milan.
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Bruno N’Gotty, hero of PSG’s victory in the Cup Cup final – 1996
Panoramic credits
Ronaldo wanted to join Raï and Ricardo
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“In the off season, Ricardo goes coach, still remembers Moutier. He tells us that he knows that Ronaldo has a great desire to play in Paris. First because we were very competitive and then the Brazilians are in love with Paris. And he wanted to join Raï and Ricardo.“Banco. A meeting is organized in a large Parisian hotel to finalize the transfer of the summer. Michel Denisot, president of PSG, Ricardo and Jean-Michel Moutier meet their target of the summer.
But very quickly, they realize that the case escapes them. Moutier again: “We realized that we couldn’t fight financially, remembers the former PSG sports director. We did our best to get it but we couldn’t. He was already earning a lot more net of tax than what we could offer him in gross. And we did not want to establish large disparities in the workforce. We had a balanced team that lived well together. If we installed a guy who made a lot more, it could have exploded the balance of the locker room.“
Paris misses the best 9 of the moment, and perhaps in history. FC Barcelona, winner of the C1 in 1992 but in clear sporting difficulties (4th in Liga), will seize the opportunity to establish a new record that summer by spending 18 million euros. “Even if Barça was not in its best period, it remained a huge institution, recalls Moutier. We wanted to do Hristo Stoïchov in 1992, we had the means to do it but the whole institution got under way to counter us. By order of the management, all the players went to see him to tell him to stay. Barça had this advantage over us.“
Barça as it is, it had to be tricky. In an interview with Goal, Joan Gaspart, then president of Barça, recounts how he obtained Ronaldo’s signature while in Brazil: “PSV realized that it ultimately did not want to lose the player and called the Brazilian Confederation to put us all the possible obstacles. There were two bodyguards who did not want to let me pass under any circumstances. So I met a Spanish waiter at the hotel and he lent me his uniform, a tray and a Coca-Cola.“Gaspart sneaks into Ronaldo’s room and makes him sign his contract. The deal is closed. Paris is beaten.
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Ronlado in the colors of FC Barcelona
Getty Images Credits
What happened after
Ronaldo becomes Il Fenomeno. 47 goals in 49 matches with FC Barcelona in an era which is not yet that of super scorers. A short season only spent in Catalonia but an absolutely exceptional exercise. Like this slalom against Compostela, where he recovers the ball in his half of the field, eliminates six players before carrying the thrust. The Brazilian steamroller becomes the best player in the world. At 21, he is the youngest winner of the Ballon d’Or.
PSG will live a season very identical to the previous one. He will still fail in second place, 12 points anyway from AS Monaco. But there is a new Cup Cup final against Barça, this time. Ricardo’s men will lose on the smallest margin (1-0) on a goal from… Ronaldo! The Brazilian is in dire straits for Parisian defense in general and Bruno N’Gotty in particular, forced to mow it in his 16 meters shortly before the break. R9 takes care of the sentence. Man of the match, he lights up the evening and gives Jean-Michel Moutier a little more regret: “It’s a rather ironic nod to history. A year after we did everything to sign it, he martyred us in the final“, he notes 23 years later.
Ronaldo with FC Barcelona
Eurosport credits
Canal could afford Ronaldo, if it had the strategic will
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But Ronaldo believes that he is not paid at fair value in Catalonia and intends to raise the stakes. Its release clause of 29 million euros does not weigh very heavy against its brand new status. That year, in Europe, there is Ronaldo and the others. So, on the side of PSG, the idea resurfaces. “We did not make an offer to the player, just discussed with the player. But, here again, we come up against far too high demands“, informs Moutier.
However, according to Michel Denisot, president of the PSG at the time, the case could have been concluded: “Canal could afford Ronaldo, if it had the strategic will, testified Denisot in 2014 on the L’Equipe channel. There was a desire not to crush the other clubs, out of respect for the subscriber of the chain who lived in Montpellier or Marseille … Pierre Lescure did not want there to be some sort of dominant position for the club. Channel compared to others. “ Second missed meeting with “one of the five greatest players in history” (Moutier). This time, Paris will not recover.
And if he really signed …
Moutier struggles with exercise: “I can’t imagine this PSG with Ronaldo otherwise I wouldn’t sleep at night and I don’t want to hurt myself. But it is certain that it would have changed the fate of the club.“And for good reason. Ronaldo signed for PSG on July 2, 1996. History turned upside down. PSG won its second consecutive European Cup thanks to a festival by its Brazilian, author of a hat-trick against Barça in the final. His 32 goals in Ligue 1, far ahead of Stéphane Guivarc’h’s 22 units, allow PSG to win its third title of champion. But dissensions appear in the workforce. Leonardo, Raï and Ronaldo form the clan of Brazilians who monopolize the light and the big wages.
The jealousies are sharpened. The very young Nicolas Anelka, who has not managed to find his place since the arrival of Ronaldo, made a remarkable exit in the press before joining Arsenal. If everything rolls on the ground, the tensions between the Brazilians and the history of PSG explode the unity of the locker room. Ronaldo, who has outgrown the institution, joins FC Barcelona for 30 million euros. And Paris is betting on Edmundo, a Brazilian striker who investigates goal by goal to Vasco da Gama. One of the most resounding flops in its history.
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League 1
2002: Cristiano Ronaldo at OL, the improbable exchange
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Ligue’s cup
Gueugnon 2000: the group of friends who defeated PSG
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