Former Brazilian striker Ronaldo Nazario This year he faces one of his biggest challenges as a football entrepreneur: keeping him Cruzeiro in First division on his return to the top flight of Brazilian Championshipwhich starts this Saturday.
‘O Fenômeno’, owner of 90% of the shares of the club with which he is known in the world, fulfilled in 2022 the goal of advancing the team to the golden division of Brazilian football and now aims to keep it in the elite without major -waste financially.
Since he officially took control of Cruzeiro a year ago, the main concern of the owner of Real Valladolid of Spain became numbers.
The set of Belo Horizonte It was relegated to the Second Division in 2019 for the first time in its centenary history, hit by a serious financial and institutional crisis. Ronaldo said the club is in the UCI and still insists it is in a delicate situation.
It has been three years of wandering in the desert that ended after a brilliant campaign in the last edition of Serie B, which the sky-blue team beat with a big advantage over the other three teams that also returned to the first division this year. : Gremio, Vasco da Gama and Bahia.
Interestingly, the last two also passed into the hands of private investors last year. Vasco was bought by the US fund 777 Partners and Bahía became part of the powerful City Group.
All this amid rumors spread by the Brazilian press about Ronaldo’s plans to soon sell 20% of his shares to local businessman Pedro Lourenço, owner of a supermarket chain .
CHANGE OF COACH AND DISCRETE SIGNINGS
Returning to the elite, Ronaldo strengthened the squad with almost twenty contracts between signing and assignment. All medium profile and low cost. The best known are midfielder Ramiro, striker Nikao and center back Neris. Fans are still waiting for new reinforcements before the market closes.
On the bench, there was an unexpected change of coach a month after the start of the Brazilian Championship. the Uruguayan paulo pezzolanothe architect of the promotion, resigned on March 19, after being eliminated in the semifinals of Mineiro Championship in front of Americaand headed to Real Valladolidwhich also belongs to Ronaldo, to try to save it from relegation in Spain.
The Portuguese have come to its place Pedro Miguel Marques da Costa Filipebetter known as “Pepa”, who has extensive experience in moderate clubs in his country and is free after leaving the al tai saudi
The Portuguese coach made his official debut on Thursday with a 1-0 loss against Nauticalcompeting in the third division, in the first leg of the third stage of brazil cupwhere Cruzeiro aims to reach at least the round of 16.
His debut in the Brazilian Championship, scheduled for Sunday at home to Corinthians, will be more complicated, another of Brazil’s greats, even if he has been at a low level for several seasons.
Without the physical fatigue of playing in the Copa Libertadores or the Copa Sudamericana, the main goal is permanence and the dream of reaching the qualifying positions for the Libertadores, which will give the club a new and important economic boost. Gone are the two continental titles he won in 1976 and 1997 or the four Leagues won in 1966, 2003, 2013 and 2014.
Today, the ruler of Belo Horizonte is the Atlético Mineiro. Right now, Ronaldo’s priorities are different: smoothing the accounts, paying off debts to avoid FIFA sanctions and keeping the team alive in the most powerful League in America.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
