Field of dreams

Click here (Daily Mail Version) or here (The Times version) to read a story I wrote about James Oswald who is a farmer by day and crime writer by night.

Ronaldo: Il Fenomeno

Click here or read below for my player profile of Brazilian football icon, Ronaldo. It was published on Scotzine.

Ronaldo: Il Fenomeno

“Mentally, I wanted to continue, but I have to acknowledge that I lost [the battle] to my body.”

Those were the words of Ronaldo Luis Nazário de Lima speaking in February 2011, when announcing his inevitable retirement from football. Ronaldo had problems with his knees for large periods of his career and it appeared, alongside a heavy weight problem, an issue that he was unable to shake off.

There is always a tinge of sadness when a quality player finally admits defeat with their body and some Rangers fans may go through similar motions when their favourite old man, Davie Weir, hangs up the boots. However, while Weir has been a great servant to his club in times of financial turmoil, his achievements severely pale in significance to that of Ronaldo who would unquestionably be in most people’s top fifteen players of all time.

The Brazilian superstar – known by many fans as ‘Il Fenomeno’ – has an endless list of trophies and awards, some individual, some team-orientated. After winning the Copa do Brasil with Cruzeiro in1993, he moved to Europe, with a scoring ratio of almost a goal a game at PSV Eindhoven and continued to make similar impacts for Brazil and his next club, Barcelona. His unbelievable talent and goal tally was rewarded with the title of FIFA World Footballer of the Year in 1996 and 1997, making Ronaldo both the youngest ever to win the award and the only player to do so in consecutive years.

Unable to renegotiate Ronaldo’s contract, Barcelona were waving goodbye to their star man after just one season at the club. Inter Milan forked out, what was then, a world record fee of £19 million for Ronaldo’s services and the then, twenty-one-year-old, made his way across the Mediterranean.

The goals continued to flow and the whole world looked forward to witnessing what Ronaldo could produce on the biggest platform of football at the 1998 World Cup. Bizarrely, Ronaldo already had a World Cup winners medal after being included in the 1994 Brazil squad, but he had failed to make an appearance, so he was desperate to claim another, this time by firing his country to glory.

After a 2-1 victory over Scotland, Ronaldo scored his first goal of the tournament in a 3-0 romp over Morocco. Although Brazil fell to a 2-1 defeat to Norway in the final group stage fixture, they won their group and progressed to the second round. Ronaldo would score a penalty, hit the post and then coolly slot past Chile keeper’ Nelson Tapia to wrap up a 4-1 demolition of their South American neighbours. It seemed that after a typically Brazilian tentative start to the tournament, they had finally shaken off their complacency and looked set for another World Cup success.

In the quarter finals Brazil met Denmark in what ended up being a thrilling end-to-end affair. The Brazilians came up trumps to win 3-2 with Ronaldo assisting two of the goals. Indeed, it seemed that some people were oblivious to his clinical through-balls as well as his finishing, but after this special performance, his all-round game would be appreciated further.

The Netherlands were the next obstacle for the Samba Boys and they soon looked comfortable after a fantastically timed run by Ronaldo, finishing past Edwin van der Sar with ease to open the scoring. However, Holland equalised three minutes before the full-time whistle and after a fruitless extra thirty minutes, penalties would follow. Ronaldo set Brazil on their way, sending van der Sar the wrong way and after Ronald de Boer missed his decisive penalty, a final between host nation France and World Cup holders Brazil was set up.

It would be this infamous World Cup final which tainted the star’s reputation. Ronaldo, quite simply, failed to produce the goods, with Brazil on the receiving end of a Zinedine Zidane master-class, finishing 3-0. Conspiracy theories followed especially when Ronaldo failed to be placed on the team-sheet seventy-two minutes before kick-off, only to be mysteriously added again on a further team-sheet released around thirty minutes later. Ronaldo did take to the pitch, but he looked a shadow of his former self and failed to impose himself on the game.

In the end however, it transpired that the night before the final Ronaldo had suffered convulsions and it was only decided by medical staff at last-minute that he was well enough to play the fixture. Despite the clearance by doctors, Ronaldo’s team-mates were not convinced and it seems worry took hold of them and they failed to perform to their usual high standards. After the match, Ronaldo was quite philosophical about the whole episode claiming that “we lost the World Cup but I won another cup…my life,” underlining how close to death he and his team-mates believed he was.

Ronaldo continued his astounding performances when he returned to Inter Milan, but the first significant signs of injury troubles appeared on 21 November 1999 in a match against Lecce. The striker had ruptured a tendon in his knee and required surgery. He made his comeback in April 2000 and within minutes left the pitch injured once again. Two operations and months of rehabilitation followed and Ronaldo found himself ready just in time for the 2002 World Cup.

Ronaldo scored in all three group stage fixtures, knocking a single goal past Turkey and China respectively, followed by a further two against Costa Rica. The goal tally continued with a late goal against Belgium in a 2-0 win and although he failed to score, Brazil beat England 2-1 in the quarter finals, a match which was won thanks to Ronaldinho’s exhilarating lob over David Seaman. The semi-finals brought Brazil and Turkey together again with a forty-ninth minute Ronaldo goal enough to send the Brazilians through to another final.

This time, Ronaldo was fit and able to play and the man himself opened the scoring after sixty-seven minutes when he pounced on a rare Oliver Kahn mistake. Twelve minutes later Ronaldo popped up again to side-foot past Kahn and seal a fifth World Cup for the boys in yellow. This appeared to be the rebirth of Ronaldo’s career. He finished top goalscorer at the World Cup and later in 2002, won World Player of the Year for the third time after sealing an incredible €39 million move to Real Madrid.

As it transpired, Ronaldo continued to score but injuries still plagued him and would repeatedly do so for the rest of his career, often incurring lengthy spells on the sidelines. Criticism of his now sizeable weight followed him into the 2006 World Cup and indeed the most recognisable striker in the world failed to light up the competition as he had in the two previous.

Brazil won their opening three games of the competition, but Ronaldo would struggle, being substituted in the first two fixtures, before finally breaking his duck against Japan, twice. In the second round, Brazil cruised past Ghana with Ronaldo scoring the first goal of the match which came about from a perfectly timed run onto a through ball followed by a wonderful shimmy past goalkeeper Richard Kingson. This goal took Ronaldo’s overall World Cup goal tally up to fifteen, a record which still stands to this day.

Brazil were knocked out by France in the quarter finals and from this moment forth, Ronaldo’s career would spiral into oblivion. He made the trip back to Italy, this time to play for AC Milan, but ravished by injury, only featured for just over three hundred minutes in the entire 2007-8 season and the world icon headed home for Brazil.


Ronaldo was adamant that once he recovered from injuries he would sign for Flamengo, however, he shocked the country by joining league rivals Corinthians instead. Initially, the move appeared successful, after helping the club win the Campeonato Paulista and the Brazil Cup. Although Ronaldo signed a contract extension to the end of 2011, he announced his retirement in February this year soon after Corinthians were knocked out of the Copa Libertadores.

There is no doubt that the natural talent Ronaldo possessed was nothing short of extraordinary and the endless individual and team awards he has received recognise this. However, due to physical weaknesses his career was often interrupted for long spells. Therefore, Il Fenomeno should be given credit for continuing as long as he did and congratulated for his continued goalscoring record at all times, no matter how fragile he was. Despite his problems, he managed to play ninety-two games for Brazil, scoring sixty-two goals in the process, but perhaps the most significant blip on his record is the lack of a Champions League medal even though he featured at Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter and AC Milan.

Ronaldo was not the fastest player in the world, but he did have incredible bursts of pace which enabled him to play off the shoulders of defenders to devastating effect and he seemed to almost contain a physic ability to draw out goalkeepers to meet him, only to fool them at the last possible moment and stroke the ball into the goal with, what appeared, relative ease.

Is he amongst Pele, Zidane, Best, Maradona, Beckenbauer and Garrincha? For some people, not quite. They argue that his injuries crippled him for too long and was therefore unable to provide the consistency to be an all-time great. Whether you follow this train of thought or not is somewhat irrelevant. He was sensational to watch when he was fit and undoubtedly added an extra dimension to the 1998 and 2002 World Cup which at the time, for a youngster like myself, was spellbinding to watch.

written by Will Lyon

Terrace Travels #6: Brazil 2-0 Scotland - A Journey

Click here or read below for my travel nightmare to London for Sunday's Brazil v Scotland fixture. It was published on The Terrace Scottish Football website.

Sunday was all set up for an unforgettable day. Scotland had come off the back of a comfortable 3-0 win over Northern Ireland while their matchday opponents Brazil were on a two game losing streak. The home of Arsenal, the Emirates Stadium, was to host this International Challenge match. Thousands of Scottish fans made the long journey down. For some, it was longer than others as Will Lyon found to his cost…

Scotland in action against Brazil

The plan was simple. Take a train to London on the Saturday, watch the match on Sunday, have a few beers and take the train back home on the Monday. However, as it transpired, things wouldn't be so straightforward...

Walking into Edinburgh Waverley train station at half past three on the Saturday and seeing the three o'clock Kings Cross train still sitting in its’ berth was not a comforting sight, but spirits were high and I shook off any worries and made my way to the platform for my four o'clock departure.

As I took my seat at the platform, my worst nightmare began: “The 4 o'clock service to Kings Cross is delayed.” Fifteen minutes later, the situation spiralled to a new level of doom: “The 4 o'clock service to Kings Cross is cancelled, Network Rail apologises for any inconvenience caused.” Before the panic could take hold of the hundreds of bewildered passengers, we were ushered by a marshal to head for the three o'clock Kings Cross train and told that we were “just going to have to squeeze in.” The train was not a pleasant place to be. Cramped in-between a huge suitcase and an arguing couple, I started to wish I was elsewhere as I heard news of my team Raith Rovers grabbing a crucial equaliser in their league fixture against Falkirk.

The minutes ticked by and just as the dreaded text came through informing me that Raith went on to lose the important game at Falkirk, an announcement was made over the tannoy of the train: “This service to London Kings Cross has been cancelled. There is a major signal fault at York and there will be no services to London for the rest of the day. We will operate an hourly service to Newcastle, but passengers looking to travel to London are advised make other plans or come back tomorrow.” Unfortunately, the first train to London on the Sunday would not arrive in time for the match and there was no guarantee that the signal fault would be fixed in time. With a seat on a plane costing over £150, the next best option was the dreaded Megabus – the infamous last resort of travel. The next bus was to leave St Andrews Station at half past 10 and arrive at London Victoria eight hours later. At a measly £27 the opportunity could not be missed.

After grabbing some dinner, I received a phone call from my mate who had made his way up to London for the game. He had turned up at the hostel we were booked into, only to be greeted by a receptionist who informed him that: “The system crashed when you made your booking, so although you received a booking confirmation, we do not have your booking here and we are now full.” So with that news my mate started running around London looking for somewhere to sleep and I made my way back to the bus station.

Upon arrival, I was shepherded onto a bus and with just one seat at the front and a few more at the back nearby a boisterous Tartan Army group. So I decided to sit at the front where I might be able to catch a bit more sleep. But as the bus started reversing out of its dock, the back of the bus immediately erupted with a chorus of “We'll Be Coming”. The driver was clearly amused, muttering something along the lines of “thank f*ck I'm handing this bus over to someone else,” while the Russians to the right of me looked confused and maybe even a little frightened.

As we made our way out of Edinburgh, I soon realised the man next to me (who had not even glanced at me since I had sat next to him) was on the verge of passing out, probably due to a few too many lemonade shandys on Rose Street. His head flopped back and forth, but he seemed fine – for now. Meanwhile, the Tartan Army were in full voice and mocking the lack of atmosphere at the front of the bus: “Can you hear the front sing? No, no. Can you hear the front sing? I cannae hear a f*cking thing, no, no, no.” The driver and I were laughing, the man next to me was still oblivious to the world around him and the Russians continued to look fearful for their well-being.

As we headed for the border, the man next to me uttered his first words - they were not words that I wanted to hear: “Is there a sick bag underneath the chair?” he gargled. Frantically, I searched for one but found nothing. He crashed his head back on the chair in front and grunted “ahh sh*te.” A few unpleasant noises followed, but thankfully nothing would emerge from his mouth. The bus gradually descended into silent sleep, only to be intermittently interrupted by one of the Russians whose snore was reminiscent of a foghorn.

The bus arrived in London around seven o'clock and the bleary-eyed passengers dragged themselves onto the street. I made my way to Kings Cross to meet my mate who had ended up staying in the Premier Inn near Wembley for a costly £70. We decided to check into our new hostel, which I had booked just before getting onto the bus the night before, ate some breakfast and then did what comes natural to most football fans – we hit the pub. By 11 o'clock, the atmosphere in O'Neill's was already simmering and “Flower of Scotland”, “We'll Be Coming” and “Doe A Deer” were regularly belted out at full volume.

The fans gather around The Emirates Stadium - Home of Arsenal FC

At midday, we began the migration to the Emirates Stadium, with each pub along the way looking just that little bit more full than the one previous. As the stadium loomed in the distance the atmosphere turned to one of a carnival. The Brazilians were thumping away on their drums, surrounded by samba dancers with some additional entertainment being provided by the odd drunk Scot trying to join in.

With match day scarves and programmes purchased we decided to enter the stadium. It was hard not to be blown away by the grandness of the place when you are used to visiting beauty spots such as Cowdenbeath's Central Park. There were no crumbling terraces, filthy seats or limited legroom at The Emirates and the pitch was akin to a bowling green. Behind us were two cockneys - gasping at the fact that only five Old Firm players were in the Scotland team - who were kind enough to point out that Charlie Adam was the nation's only top class player.

The match kicked off under a blazing sun and as expected, Brazil dominated from start to finish. The deadlock was broken three minutes before half time when Andre Santos' cutback found Neymar alone in the box and the youngster coolly slotted past Allan McGregor. The second half saw more of the same Brazilian domination and 13 minutes from the end Neymar made it 2-0 from the penalty spot. And with that, the game was over.

From a fans perspective, it was a wonderful day out. The Tartan Army took control of the city and the atmosphere was electric wherever you went. The whole experience only added to the cravings for an away day to Wembley to face the Auld Enemy.

As well as being a presenter on The Terrace Scottish Football Podcast, Will is sports editor of 'The Student' at Edinburgh University and the official match reporter for Raith Rovers FC. You'll also find other pieces of his scattered around the blog world - search them out! Follow Will on Twitter: @wrl1989

Brazil, Mixu & Takeovers

Please click here to listen to the latest installment of The Terrace Scottish Football Podcast.

There was no SPL action at the week, but there is still plenty talk about, starting with all the international goodness of out potassium-filled trip to face Brazil. We'll discuss what we learned, what's next and what the atmosphere was like among the throngs of Scots down there.

In domestic matters we'll have a round-up of what has been happening in club football, including talking Mixu, and potential takeovers of St. Mirren and Rangers.

Last night was a massive night in the SFL, particularly in the ever-changing race for the SPL taking place in SFL1, while Livingston and Arbroath look shoe-ins for SFL2 and SFL3 respectively. We also want to hear from Alloa and Clyde fans; what has happened with your clubs in the past couple of weeks?!

There's action to preview, including the vital Scottish Cup quarter-final tonight (which is only £10 / £5 to get into - get on that!) between Motherwell and Dundee United as well as a full card of SPL fixtures - including the Edinburgh derby.

There's also our usual goodies of Punt of the Week and Where are they Now?

Email: thetterrace@scotzine.com / Twitter: terracepodcast