25 years ago Ronaldo collapsed before the most important match of his career! Could his health woes be to blame for Brazil’s failure?

25 years ago, the whole of Brazil was counting on the star Ronaldo to lead them to defend their World Cup gold medal. But the final against hosts France didn’t go as expected, and the collapse of their biggest star just hours before the game had a certain impact.

Ronaldo was the biggest star in world football at the 1998 World Cup

The greatest “what ever” in the history of football? There are still many conspiracies surrounding the collapse of the biggest star of the 1998 World Cup in France. Many fans of the Brazilian national team still believe that if their cannonballer was okay, it would be the Seleção who would lift the World Cup winner’s trophy above his head.

Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima has just had a brilliant debut season in the Inter Milan jersey, where he transferred after a dream performance at Barcelona. 34 goals and an almost unearthly performance in a league where the best defenders in the world played at the time made him the biggest star in world football.

So it was no wonder that he was to be the man to lead his national team to a gold medal defence at the 1998 World Cup in France. And the team around Ronaldo was well on course to do so, making it all the way to the final against the home team from France.

The entire football world has been focusing its attention on the Brazilian cannonballer, who put in a truly admirable performance at the championship. At the time, Ronaldo was virtually unstoppable, as evidenced by his four goals and three assists in six games. In the end, however, a truly unexpected factor entered the story.

He was supposed to lead Brazil to the title, but an unexpected factor entered the story

The whole world was shocked when, just a few dozen minutes before the final match on 12 July 1998, Ronaldo did not feature in Mario Zagallo’s line-up. However, he finally appeared as the last player coming out of the tunnel and entered the expected match.

But during that time, the Brazilian was downright searching, and Ronaldo was a mere shadow of that dreaded cannonballer. Two headers from Zidane and a nail in the coffin from Petit decided that the gold medal went to the home team France.

The whole football world did not understand what had just happened and the fans demanded an explanation. To this day it is still not known exactly what happened and there are many conspiracy theories surrounding the situation. What is certain, however, is that Ronaldo risked his life in the match itself.

He had a convulsive seizure before the match and subsequently collapsed. Some of his teammates were present at the horrific event before the club doctor got to him. He was taken to the hospital and underwent many tests. But the results were negative and Zagallo sent him to the pitch at the insistence of the player himself.

The biggest “what if” in the history of football?

Did the horrific sight of Ronaldo with spittle at his mouth and an absent look on his face affect the performance of all Brazilians? It certainly did. Years later, many teammates admitted that nothing else was talked about all day and even during the final match they were worried about their teammate. You can’t play a World Cup final with that feeling.

Anyway, it is the biggest ‘what if’ in the history of football. Despite the loss, the still 21-year-old striker was awarded player of the tournament and although his career almost collapsed after the championship due to a lingering knee injury, he made amends four years later at the World Cup held by South Korea.

Source: FIFA, Twitter – Dave Mathieson