It would last less than a year, but it was a period of intoxicating drama and
momentous goalscoring. When Ronaldo signed for Barcelona, it was a move that elevated
him into football’s stratosphere and produced highlight reel moments which, decades later,
are still in heavy rotation. And yet it ended as quickly as it began.
This is the story of O Fenômeno’s season at Camp Nou.
In the summer of 1996, Barcelona found themselves in transition. Johan Cruyff
had been sacked before the end of the previous season, and iconic strike duo Romario and Hristo
Stoichkov had both departed. Stoichkov would actually return—he’d be re-signed for 1996-97
after a year in Serie A—but Romario was gone for good and Barcelona needed a replacement.
To find one, they went back to Eindhoven. Romario had made his name in Europe with PSV
and had even been coached by Robson in the Eredivisie. His successor, both at the Philips
Arena and in the Brazilian national team, was Ronaldo, who had followed the same route.
He was different to Romario. 54 goals in 57 PSV games described his finishing ability
accurately enough, but he was a mix of power, pace and skill and, even at 19,
looked very much like a footballer from the future.
Ronaldo might never have made it to Barcelona. Josep Gaspart, Barcelona’s vice president,
had had to disguise himself as a waiter to complete the signing. After an agreement between
Barca and PSV was reached, all that was left was for Ronaldo to sign his contract. Only the Dutch
club got cold feet at the last minute. With the forward away on international duty, preparing for
the 1996 Olympic Games, PSV asked the Brazilian FA to block any outside contact with Ronaldo.
But Gaspart improvised.
“I met a Spanish waiter in the hotel and he lent me his work clothes, gave me a tray
and a Coca-Cola,” he told Goal.com in 2018. "I put on the disguise,
said 'hello' to the security guards and told them a guest had asked for a soft drink.”
So, Ronaldo signed the contract and for £13.2m, became the most expensive footballer in history.
On the pitch, he was as advertised. His first goal for the club came against Atletico Madrid,
five minutes into his debut in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup.
With a quick shimmy to beat one defender, a surge of speed to break away from a second,
and a precise, powerful strike that knifed into the corner of the net, Ronaldo had arrived.
He'd score his first in LaLiga during the third game of the season,
dropping another shoulder against Real Santander and leaving another
trail of defenders in his wake and another goalkeeper flat on his back.
There can be no overstating just how dramatic Ronaldo’s introduction to Spanish football
was. In an era before Lionel Messi had normalised goalscoring in ridiculous volume,
Ronaldo netted 16 times in all competitions before the end of October.
He was also playing with a range of abilities which had rarely been seen in combination:
he seemed too quick for someone of his build, and too skilful for a player so strong.
He was an athletic and footballing marvel and no sequence captured that
superiority in sharper definition than his goal against Compostela.
It’s the Ronaldo goal and it’s still played on social media thousands of times each week.
He fights for the ball on the halfway line, before making off with it towards goal.
Defenders literally hang off him, doing whatever they can to foul and stop the game,
and yet he keeps running, beating players several times over before cutting across the box,
leaving one more defender for dead, and finishing past a helpless goalkeeper.
On television, Bobby Robson was caught celebrating in near-wonderment. Rightly, because it was an
extraordinary goal that announced that Ronaldo was already a force in the game – ironically,
at times, a man among children at just 20. 47 goals in 49 appearances was a startling return.
Romario’s best tally had been 32 in his single full season. Stoichkov never managed more than 24.
The sky was the limit for Ronaldo and Barcelona.
Except it wasn’t.
The club was not a happy place in 1996. The sacking of Cruyff provoked significant supporter
protest against club president Josep Nunez. In addition to which, gentleman though Bobby Robson
was, his tactical approach was more British in style and at odds with the blueprint that Cruyff
had left behind. Robson was treated as a caretaker by the media, and chatter about
potential successors was ceaseless. The reaction to his football was, at times, unenthusiastic.
Ronaldo’s year in Barcelona was also not unequivocally positive.
He was injured on international duty as Autumn turned to winter
and that prompted complaints about his conditioning. A young Jose Mourinho,
working as Robson’s translator and assistant, was also less than complimentary about his work rate.
And, while Ronaldo’s goalscoring was phenomenal, he suffered a long, goal-less spell between
November and January, and a bleak February which returned just two goals in six games.
If there was a souring of relations, Ronaldo certainly contributed to it.
Being pictured at the Rio carnival immediately after a 2-0 Derby defeat
to Espanyol was hopelessly naïve and led to him being pilloried by the sports dailies. Added to
which, rumours about a transfer to Serie A – still the dominant financial league of era – began early
in the season, never really stopped and were hardly discouraged by his representatives.
Fans could be forgiven for suspecting that he was just passing through. Ultimately they were right.
Beyond the array of goals – long-range screamers, tap-ins, towering headers,
brilliant dribbles and even penalty rebounds – there was also a hat-trick
in a ridiculous 5-4 Copa del Rey comeback against Atletico Madrid and a further two
goals in the semi-finals of a competition that they and he would ultimately win.
He’d score the only goal in the clasico at Camp Nou, too, as well as a last-gasp,
brilliant winner against Deportivo La Coruna which just about kept Barcelona’s flagging title hopes
alive. Real Madrid would win the title, that was certainly part of the grumbling in the background,
but Ronaldo did convert the penalty that won Barcelona the 1997 Cup Winners’ Cup
in their final against Paris Saint-Germain,
having been fundamental to their progressing through a semi-final against Fiorentina.
And then, he was gone. In a foreshadowing of what would happen two decades later,
the most talented Brazilian player of his generation
had his release clause activated and, for a new world transfer record of £19.5m,
Ronaldo was heading for Inter Milan and a second consecutive FIFA World Player of the Year Award.
Injuries were around the corner, the severity of which would change the dimensions of Ronaldo's
career. And that’s partly why that one season in Barcelona retains its mystique:
for all its melodrama, it captured the original Ronaldo. The best version.