Trimming the Fat, A Ronaldo Luís Nazário management adventure

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Yes there once was another player who went by the name Ronaldo.


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Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima was one of the most celebrated football players of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Born in Brazil 1976, Ronaldo received his first Ballon d’Or at the tender age of 21. Five years later he was awarded with another one, and Ronaldo has also been given the FIFA Player of the Year award three times.

During his football career, Ronaldo played 97 international matches for the Brazilian national team and scored 62 goals. He help his team to victory in the FIFA World Cup of 1994 and 2002, and during the 2006 FIFA World Cup he scored his 15th goal, becoming the tournaments most prolific scorer ever.
Career

At the age of 12, Ronaldo was active in the Tennis Club Valqueire where he didn’t play tennis but futebol de salão, a type of football (soccer) played with a very small ball. Playing with such as small ball is believed to have improved Ronaldo’s ball skills.
In 1993, Ronaldo started playing for Cruzeiro di Belo Horizonte, a football club on the rise. During Ronaldo’s year with Cruzeiro di Belo Horizonte, the team won Copa do Brasil for the first time. Ronaldo played 14 games and scored 12 goals.
In 1994, Ronaldo joined PSV Eindhoven and moved to the Netherlands. He scored 30 goals during his first season, but suffered a knee injury during his second season which forced him to sit out a lot of matches. During the 13 matches he did play he scored a total of 12 goals. In 1996, Ronaldo helped his team to a victory in the Dutch Cup.
After receiving $17 million, PSV Eindhoven released Ronaldo to FC Barcelona. During his first season in Spain, Ronaldo played 49 games and scored 47 goals. FC Barcelona won EUFA Cup Winner’s Cup, Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España. In 1997, Ronaldo became the best scorer in La Liga by scoring 34 goals over 37 matches.
Ronaldo transferred to Inter Milan in 1997. He quickly adapted to life in Italy and became the second highest goal scorer during his initial season with Inter Milan. Ronaldo was appointed the role of team captain and stayed with Inter until 2002. In match against Lecce in 1999, Ronaldo suffered a knee injury and was forced to undergo surgery. He returned to the football field the following year, but only played for seven minutes before damaging his knee again. He could not return to football until the fall of 2002, and by then he had already transferred to Real Madrid.
Despite the knee injury Real Madrid was willing to pay €46 million for Ronaldo and he commenced play in October 2002, scoring two goals during his first match and receiving standing ovations from the crowd. During his first season with Real Madrid, Ronaldo scored 23 goals in league matches. Real Madrid won the Intercontinental Cup in 2002, and was victorious in both the La Liga Championships and the Spanish Super Cup in 2003. By the end of the 2003/2004 season Ronaldo suffered another injury, but remained the top scorer of the league and was awarded the Pichichi Trophy.
In 2007 Ronaldo transferred to AC Milan where he played 14 matches and scored seven goals during his first season. All in all, Ronaldo played 20 matches for AC Milan before suffering another severe knee injury and during this time he scored a total of nine goals. The knee injury benched Ronaldo for the remainder of the season and his contract was not renewed.
While trying to rehabilitate his injured knee after yet another surgery, Ronaldo played for Flamengo in Brazil. He then signed with their arch rival Corinthians and scored ten goals for them over the course of 14 matches, helping Corinthians to victories in both Campeonato Paulista and Brazil Cup. In Brazilian Serie A, Ronaldo scored 12 goals over 20 matches.
When Ronaldo’s contract with Corinthians was renewed in February 2010 he announced that he would retire from football at the end of 2011. However, injuries and his struggle with hypothyroidism forced him into retirement in February 2011.

Can Ronaldo continue his legacy in the world of management? Only time will tell.





 
Not looking to my saves right now
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This save will be a bit of a management challenge, I would almost like to follow the path of his playing career with the aim of winning the competitions he did as a player at the clubs he won them at. Once the competitions are won it will be time to move onto the next club, this will obviously depend on the availability of the job and Ronaldo's rep as a manager. So the clubs he played for will be managed in this order ,

Cruzeiro

PSV Eindhoven

Barcelona

Internazionale

Real Madrid

Corinthians

The end goal is to become the manager of Brazil and win the world cup twice as Ronaldo did in 1994 and 2002.

The adventure will shortly begin.​
 
Time do Povo (Club of the People)


Ronaldo's first club on his management adventure will take him to the club that started it all.

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Based in Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais, Cruzeiro is one of Brazil's most accomplished clubs and one of only five Brazilian teams to be never relegated.

Cruzeiro play in the Brazilian Serie A and the Mineiro state league.

Club honours include:

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Club Overview:

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Club Facilities:

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While at Cruzeiro Ronaldo won the Mineiro State Championship and the Copa do Brasil, this will be his aim again before he moves on to his next club.

Up next will be an overview of the clubs Tactics, Key players, Transfers and Pre Season.​
 
Season expectations, Squad Overview and Preseason


Ronaldo's first job as manager was to meet club president Gilvan de Pihno.

For his first forray into management Ronaldo is under pressure to deliver the goods.

Pihno is looking for the club to play an attacking brand of football

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Pihno is also looking for Cruzeiro to be challenging for the Serie A title and is expecting Ronaldo to win the Mineiro state champioship.

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To help achieve this Ronaldo has been given a transfer budget of £2.3m.

Media predictions have Cruzeiro finishing 7th so Ronaldo is going to have to work hard to prove his critics wrong. I would expect Cruzeiro to be challenging for the title this season and realistically winning the State Championship, where Atletico Mineiro will be our main rivals for the crown.

Cruzeiro are also expected to make the final of the Copa Libertadores.

So what does Ronaldo have to work with. Well on paper the Cruzeiro squad looks fairly balanced but if you look deeper the squad is overrun with forwards, full backs and central defenders. Depth wise there is enough to work with, the squad excels in strength, aggression, work rate and teamwork.

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Key players within the squad are:

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All round top keeper, has great mental stats.

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Courted by many of Europes finest and capped for Brazil, Ronaldo might have a fight on his hands to keep Dede.

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Solid fullback Mena will be a mainstay of the team for years to come.

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Another quality fullback although I believe will he will pushed towards the wings as his attacking abilities outweigh his defensive stats.

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Solid Midfielder, that should have a few more years left in him.

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Coming to the end of his career, this may be his last for the club. The well traveled Baptista will be key to Cruzeiro's success this season.

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The on loan forward has the ability to score goals, those wages though.

These players will be integral to any success Cruzeiro has and will be the base of what the team is built around.

Cruzeiro do have a few decent young players who will be given a chance throughout the season, most notable are these two:

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Para will be given game time throughout the season, however he will have to fight to displace Mena and Alisson although young will be Ronaldo's first choice left winger.

The rest of the squad will be made up of players already at the club and a few new additions which will help bolster the squad.

The following where brought into the club:

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Most notable out of these guys is Rafinha from Barcelona, he has the ability to place right across the forward line and joins the club on a two year loan deal.

Calleri was bought in to fight it out with Damiano for that number 9 spot and should prove a valuable addition. Although the club has a number of players who are natural strikers many of them make better wingers and are being trained to do so.

Octavio and Fabricio where bought in to bolster the centre midfield options.

With all this in mind the team will be playing an attacking 4-2-3-1.

Pre season went pretty well for Ronaldo although a glamour friendly against Bayern ended in heavy defeat, it did have its benefits though 600k was raked in as an appearance fee.

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Up next for Ronaldo is the Mineiro state championship, can he spur Cruzeiro onto their first competition win this season.


 
Looks good, will follow, not a fan of the team you pick for obvious reason but good luck
 
Campeonato Mineiro

​After a relatively successful pre season, Ronaldo's next job was to take on the Mineiro state championship a title he won as a player with Cruzeiro, could he complete the first challenge on our list.

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América Mineiro (Belo Horizonte)

Cruzeiro's biggest challenge to the crown would come in the form of fellow Serie A team Atletico Mineiro who have won the title an incredible 42 times. The format for the Campeonato is a twelve team league in which each team plays each other one for a total of 11 games. The bottom two teams are relegated where as the top four will then contest a play off to determine the overall champion.

So how did it finish?

Well Ronaldo grabbed that top spot in the league with relative ease despite the squad being heavily rotated, two first 11's were used throughout the group stage.

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Highlights include a 4-1 away win against Atletico Mineiro and demolition jobs against Democrata, Tombense, Mamore and Guarani.

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Cruzeiro then went on to face Tombense in the semi final and destroyed them 12-1 over two legs.

The final was against Atletico Mineiro the first leg ended in a 1-1 draw, the return leg was then played in front of Cruzeiro's home fans which seemed to spur the team on. Atletico were beaten 6-1 which would mean Cruzeiro had won their first trophy under Ronaldo and stage one of Ronaldo's task was complete.

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Stand out man of the tournament was on loan forward Jonathan Calleri, he finished the campaign with 20 goals despite only playing 10 matches and scoring 5 hatricks.

Mentions must also go to inside forward Joel 16 goals in 13 games and full back Eugenio Mena who assisted 8 goals in 9 games.

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​Up next for Ronaldo is the start of the Brasileirao and the continuation of the libertadores of which we will touch up on come the end of the season.
 
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The halfway point

With 18/19 games played, the season is in full throw. Ronaldo and Cruzeiro sit proudly at the top of the Brasileirao.

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Cruzeiro currently sit top 7 points ahead of second place Atletico Paranense with a game in hand.

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As you can see results have been exceptional, with only a narrow loss to Corinthians and draws with Atletico Mineiro and Cortiba the only blemishes on the record. Games come thick and fast in Brazil with games sandwiched between Cup and Continental competitions, the full squad has been used extensively.

Key players so far this campaign include:

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Despite missing 11 games due to injury in recent weeks, Calleri is still the clubs top scorer with 38 goals in 29 games.

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Ronaldo made Joel's loan deal a permanent one and Joel has repaid that faith by a return of 27 goals in 29 games, whats more Joel is used as an inside forward and not out and out striker.

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Dede has been in fine form this season and has been solid at the back, he has been continually courted by Europe's finest. Ronaldo has made it his mission to keep him at the club and to date all his attempts have paid off.

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Cruzeiro's most underrated yet form player Eugenio Mena. Continually consistent Mena has been dominating the left flank this season.

Ronaldo has also made changes to the playing squad this season and has let some of the clubs older players leave to play in Europes elite, this has not only improved the clubs finances but has thinned the playing squad and allowed the team to reinvest in younger players. Ronaldo has also secured two year loan deals for a number of Brazilian nationals who have been plying their trade in Europe's elite.

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Next up, the conclusion of the Brasiliero.

 
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Not quite the conclusion

With 10 games left to play it now appears not if but when will Cruzeiro wrap up the title. Ronaldo and the Raposa have a 23 point advantage to second place Corinthians.

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Results have been pleasing with 8 wins and 2 draws in the last 10.
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Whats more impressive is that Cruzeiro have been able to get this run going despite losing a number of players to European clubs. Henrique and Willian perhaps the most notable losses. To compensate these losses Ronaldo has been busy in the loan market once more.

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In terms of player form, it's the usual suspects again making the difference on the pitch. Calleri once more has been scoring the goals and Mena has been laying them on.

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Ronaldo in recent weeks has also embarked on the start of his second challenge and that was to win the Copa Do Brasil, with the state championship under his belt can he replicate his playing career by winning the Copa Do Brasil also. If so he may be able to leave Cruzeiro and move on to his next team PSV Eindhoven who at present are having a terrible time in the Eredivise. Phillip Cocu's tenure may be up as the club are currently considering his position.

Can Ronaldo complete his challenge in his first season and if so will the Eindhoven job become available.

More to come...




 
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