Ronaldo reveals his secret to partying when he played for Madrid

An exceptional player, Ronaldo Nazario was also a man who loved to party. He has opened up about it.

A player with FC Barcelona between 1996 and 1997 and then a Real Madrid player from 2002 to 2007, Ronaldo Nazario reflected on some of the highlights of his career, including his fear of injury. He also revealed his little secret for partying while playing at the Casa Blanca.

“I always had certain characteristics and a clear ambition as a player. I wanted to score goals and have fun playing football. But then injuries started to happen, and it became complicated,” he commented, adding that he had started to experience mild tendinitis as early as 1998.

“I finished the World Cup well, I thought it was normal. From 1999 onwards, the problem worsened until I partially ruptured it. At Inter, we made a mistake by only partially stitching the tendon, but no one imagined that six years later, the tendon would rupture completely,” he admitted.

“When it broke, I first thought I’d been hit by a rock or a gunshot. I fell, put my hand on my knee to steady it, and that’s when I realized something had broken. I started crying, not from pain, but from fear. I thought, ‘What’s happening to me? My career and my life are over,’” R9 said.

He also denied the common misconception that he didn’t work hard. “I didn’t know what it took to become a great player; I did what was asked of me. To improve, you have to develop technically, tactically, and physically. People often say to me, ‘You’re an animal physically, what a gift from heaven.’ Damn, I trained a lot. No one goes that fast without training.”