Legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima popularly known as Ronaldo, has revealed that he never wanted to leave Barcelona after his prolific season at the Nou Camp in the 1996-1997 campaign.
Ronaldo joined Barca from Eredivisie giants PSV for a then world record fee and was a huge success in La Liga, netting 34 goals in 37 games in the competition.
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Also, he helped Barcelona win the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the Spanish Super Cup.
Despite his achievements he then surprisingly moved on to Inter Milan the following summer after his contract renegotiations broke down.
His move to Inter saw him set another world record fee of £19.5m, and the Barcelona president at the time Joan Gaspert recently admitted the club could not resist the money on offer for their star player.
But in an interview with DAZN Italy Ronaldo admitted he would have preferred to spend more time at Barcelona.
“I’d signed a contract renewal at the end of the season and I went away with the Brazil national team,” Ronaldo said.
“Five days later, they called me to tell me that I couldn’t continue with the renewal. It was never in my hands. I wanted to stay.
“If the club didn’t value me as I thought they should, then the decision wasn’t in my hands. I would have liked to have stayed, but it wasn’t up to me.”
Ronaldo went on to spend five seasons at Inter and won the UEFA Cup (defunct) in his first season.
Despite experiencing success at Inter, he later struggled with injury problems, and eventually left to join Barcelona’s bitter rivals Real Madrid in 2002.
At Real Madrid he won LaLiga, Spanish Super Cup and the now defunct Intercontinental Cup.
Ronaldo is now the majority owner of Real Valladolid after buying a 51% controlling stake in the La Liga club.
