"That 1997-98 Uefa Cup campaign was the last we saw of the ‘pure’ Ronaldo. Nike’s ‘R9’ brand soon sprang into action, forgetting it had a human at its core. The striker changed his Inter shirt number from 10 to 9 and became the greatest commodity in world sport, selling everything from tyres to sunglasses. Rushed back from one serious injury after another, he lost two years of his career to chronic knee problems until making his comeback in the 2002 World Cup, scoring eight goals on the way to Brazil’s victory. He was still the best of his generation and greatest goalscorer the World Cup has ever seen, but never again the turbo-charged extraterrestrial of Barcelona and that maiden season at the San Siro. "
In episode Ninety Nine we look back at "Ronaldo in Moscow" by Sheridan Bird, first published in Issue Four in March 2012. In it, he examines how a slalom through the mud in Moscow in Uefa Cup tie against Spartak Moscow helped confirm the genius of the player known as ‘O Fenomeno’.
