Former Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo Nazário de Lima hinted this Monday that, after selling 90% of Cruzeiro’s shares to a local businessman, he will seek to get rid of the Spanish Real Valladolid, a club he also controls.
“I’m going to be very quick (in the answer), Valladolid is next,” said the former Brazilian striker in a press conference together with the new owner of Cruzeiro, Pedro Lourenço, when asked about the future of his participation in the white and violet set.
Ronaldo announced this Monday that he sold the Belo Horizonte club after 2 years and 4 months at the helm of the team in which he began to emerge as a player.
Neither party disclosed the amount of the operation, although the Brazilian press states that it was around 600 million reais (almost 120 million dollars), which is 200 million reais (40 million dollars) more than the amount paid. for that 90% of the shares in December 2021.
The champion in the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan anticipated that, after the agreement reached with Lourenço, he is thinking about taking a “sabbatical” time until “something appears out there,” in apparent allusion to a business that arises in his native country. .
“Probably in the future I will do something related to the football industry, I will just try to be more responsible from now on in the next projects,” he said.
Ronaldo decided to buy Cruzeiro when it was in the second division of the Brazilian Championship and “on the verge” of bankruptcy, with debts of “1.3 billion reais” (250 million dollars or 240 million euros at today’s exchange rate).
He managed to promote it to the first division, although last year the light blue team almost lost the category again, which began to generate a negative climate towards his figure as the club’s top leader.
The criticism has continued this year after losing the final of the Mineiro Championship against the main rival, Atlético Mineiro, and the bad start in the group stage of the Copa Sudamericana.
Likewise, Ronaldo has also been questioned as president of Real Valladolid, which this season is fighting to return to the top flight of Spanish football.
