The name Ronaldomay or may not mean much to you. He is an aging, brilliant Brazilian soccer star. Brazil, a country which eats, drinks, sleeps, and breathes soccer, produces the finest players and teams in the world and has won the world cup more than anyone else. It also happens that national elections coincide with the world cup every four years. There is an interesting little articlein the NY Times about the dynamic this creates in Brazilian politics.
Back to Ronaldo. The incumbent president, da Silva, has latched onto soccer to boost his chances of re-election. He also joined in some popular criticism of Ronaldo as being a bit on the plump side for someone expected to race up and down the field for 90 minutes (this criticism is not heard much anymore since Ronaldo scored two beautiful goals recently). The Times reports Ronaldo’s response to da Silva’s comments:
But Mr. da Silva has discovered that being too ardent a fan can also create political problems. When he suggested twice this month that the star forward Ronaldo was overweight, the player took offense and fired right back at the president.
“They say that he drinks a whole lot,” Ronaldo told Brazilian reporters in Germany. “Everybody says that I’m fat and he drinks. Since it is a lie that I’m fat, I think it must also be a lie that he drinks.”
Mr. da Silva then backed away from further confrontation with the popular player, sending him what has been described as a letter of apology.
Think about it for a second. I’ve gained respect for Ronaldo, I have to say, and by the way: no matter what you hear, he isn’t fat.
Even if he is fat, when people watch soccer/football and they sit way up high in the bleachers, how do they see the people so far away? I’ve always wondered that. The ball is kind of big, I know, but in sports like baseball, which has a small ball, I don’t understand how people could keep up with it, even if the players were all elephant-sized.
There’s no denying that he’s put on a lot of weight and that this has slowed him down. We have yet to see the Ronaldo of old and we may not. I hope we do but he’s got to start actually moving around.
I saw Ronaldo play live once. Real Madrid v’s Manchester United in the second leg of the 2003 Champions League quarter-finals at Old Trafford. Real lost 4-3 on the night and won 6-5 on aggregate. Ronaldo scored a hat-trick and was given a standing ovation by the Man U crowd when he was taken off with 10 minutes left. That’s right folks, a standing ovation for a member of the visiting team from the home crowd in England! How often does that happen?
Despite the dissapointment of exiting the competition he made the night for us those of us who had flown over for the game. He was simply brilliant. Made me realise why they call it the beautiful game. . . .
My predicition is that he will prove all his critics wrong before the end of this world cup. He is already well ahead of his last world cup eh, performance.
You cna see it, usually. Maybe hte white-on-green contrast, I dunno. Or when you can’t see it (heck, I often can’t when I don’t bring my glasses), you can tell by the way the players are moving around and what they’re doing where the ball is.
I’ve gained respect for Ronaldo, I have to say, and by the way: no matter what you hear, he isn’t fat. 
