Time for Ronaldo to retire?

November 19, 2008

When you manage just 22 minutes in a charity friendly, it is usually a bad sign.

Brazilian Ronaldo was huffing and puffing after his short cameo in Morocco on Monday against a Zinedine Zidane XI and now he is seriously considering retirement.

“I don’t know if I will continue playing or retire. I still haven’t taken a decision,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport. “There is no rush. I could decide tomorrow or in a month. I really don’t know.”

The friendly was his comeback after a stop-start recovery from a second serious knee injury, which he sustained playing for AC Milan in February.

Even before he collapsed to the ground in agony, it was clear he was never going to come close to recapturing the sparkling form he showed at Barcelona, Inter Milan and occasionally Real Madrid.

Weight problems, injuries and question marks over his motivation have heralded the fall from grace. Milan’s PR machine was very clever in not making any public comment, and therefore not looking heartless, when they allowed his contract to run out in June with the world hardly taking notice.

Without a club, Ronaldo has turned down a solitary offer from midtable Serie A side Siena. Manchester City and Flemengo have been mentioned in the media as possible destinations but there seems little movement.

Would Ronaldo be better packing in now rather than soldiering on at an unfashionable club just for the sake of it?

If he carries on, will we remember his decline rather the way he fought back from injury to shoot Brazil to 2002 World Cup glory?

PHOTO: Time ticking away? Ronaldo sits on cones during a training session at Flamengo. Sept 8, 2008. Ronaldo trained with the Brazilian club as he went through a rehabilitation programme after he ruptured a tendon in his left knee playing for AC Milan. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos

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