Earlier this week, Inter Milan owner and petrol millionaire Massimo Moratti was in Teheran for a meeting with officials at the Iranian Energy Ministry. The Inter boss had travelled to Iran to talk petrol affairs but, inevitably, his hosts were equally curious about another of his business ventures: namely his football club's heavy investment in a Brazilian called Nazaria de Lima Ronaldo Luiz.
During a reception in the Italian embassy in Teheran, Moratti told his hosts: "I'm always being told rumours about huge, new offers on the way for Ronaldo, but I pay no heed. Apart from my affection for Ronaldo, I'm convinced that over the next 10 years Ronaldo will be worth much more to Inter than any figure anyone can offer me now."
Whatever about the next 10 years, as and from tomorrow's top of the table clash between Juventus and Inter Milan, Moratti may start to see the first tangible returns on an investment which, by the time Ronaldo's contract runs out in 2006, will have cost Inter (and partners) at least $110 million by way of initial purchase price and annual club wages (the latter at $2.9 million, after tax).
For Moratti, for Ronaldo and for Inter, tomorrow is D-Day. With four games to play, the Serie A title contest is a two horse race which sees second placed Inter go into the game just one point behind Juventus. Third placed Lazio are out of the hunt nine points further back.
This is the big one for, even if Inter have already qualified for the UEFA Cup final clash with Lazio, there has never been any secret as to the club's major seasonal objective. Ever since Inter stole all the off-season headlines last summer by buying Ronaldo out of his Barcelona contract in a $32 million deal, Moratti had made it clear that the club has one prerogative and one alone this season: to win the scudetto, the Serie A league title.
Moratti, Ronaldo and Inter face undoubtedly their biggest test of the season. A side that, by turns, has been accused of being too defensive, too reliant on the counterattack and too dependent on Ronaldo will find itself facing arguably the best organised, most aggressive soccer collective in Europe. Inter, a team which last won the Italian title in 1989 and the Champions' Cup in 1965, faces a side which has won two of the last three Italian titles and which next month will line out in its third consecutive Champions' League final, against Real Madrid. Juventus are nothing if not the battle-hardened kings, while Inter clearly are the brash pretenders.
When the two sides met in Milan on the first Sunday of the New Year, it was the 21-year Brazilian who turned the game.
In a performance that was alarmingly short on work rate but breathtakingly strong on match winning quality, Ronaldo turned that game on its head, using first his positional instinct and then his turbo-jet acceleration to make a break down the Juventus left and set up the only goal for Youri Djorkaeff early in the second half. That game seemed to mark a passage of rites for Ronaldo. When it came to the game that mattered most, he had delivered. Furthermore, he had done so not by a typically Brazilian use of instinctive flair and touch, but rather by the rational use of lightning fast reflexes, allied to a feline capacity for infinite patience.
Can lightning strike twice? What we know is that, since last January, both Ronaldo and Inter have gone through bleak moments and endured bitter criticism (some from "Il Padrone" Moratti) only to re-emerge in winning form. Inter go into the game on a roll of six straight league wins and with Ronaldo leading the Serie A goalscorers' chart on 22 goals. By comparison, Juventus have picked up four wins and two draws in their last six league games while their "Ronaldo", a certain Alessandro Del Piero, is on the 20-goal mark.
Juventus coach Marcello Lippi admits that the Brazilian is on his mind. Every Tuesday, Lippi receives three videotapes: one is of the Juventus game of the previous Sunday, while the other two tapes contain the last two league games played by his opponents on the coming Sunday. This week, however, Lippi may not need to have spent so much time in front of the video-recorder since he knows all too well just who his biggest problem may well be.
"When I think about the game and about Ronaldo, my thoughts are ones of admiration and worry. He gives me the impression of being a very nice guy, untouched by all his success and by the celebrity-type lifestyle he leads."
Lippi's praise for Ronaldo is echoed by his fellow professionals, who respect his wise head on young shoulders, his ability to be straightforward in relations with them and his handling of a demanding lifestyle.
Remember, Ronaldo is a man with commitments. Apart from his contract with Inter, Ronaldo also has four personal sponsors: Nike pay him an annual $2 million, tyre company Pirelli an annual $1.1 million, Brazilian beer company Brahma and multinational food company Parmalat $575,000 approximately (all figures after tax and estimates). Which all means that his estimated earnings are somewhere around $7 million, after tax.
Many readers will now be familiar with Ronaldo's airport advert for Nike, featuring the nifty footwork, and with his impersonation of Christ the Redeemer over the Bay of Rio de Janeiro for a Pirelli ad.
Inevitably, as the season comes to its climax, Ronaldo's off the pitch activities have been severely curtailed. Nonetheless, his sponsors and his club are more than happy with results so far. Inter have a record number of season ticket holders this year (47,630), Nike Italy say they have the "most visible player in the world" and Pirelli claim they have gained up to five times their investment by way of extensive publicity in soccer-mad Italy alone.
All of them, however, will be even happier if Ronaldo's brilliance helps Inter beat Juventus and send them on their way to the Italian title. Massimo Moratti could then start calculating the dividends on his original investment.
