Why Brazil’s football stars are coming home

The São Paulo crowd was on its feet before Corinthians’ first home game of the season on 20 January even began, cheering each player as the line-up was announced. The roar for new signing Roberto Carlos, now 36 and playing his first domestic game after 15 years in Europe, was almost as loud as that for his 2002 World Cup winning team-mate Ronaldo, whose arrival at the club in December 2008 electrified Brazilian football and helped Corinthians win last year’s Brazilian Cup and a place in the Libertadores, South America’s Champions League, for this, their centenary year.

“I came here to win the Libertadores,” the short, muscular, shaven-headed Carlos said when presented to fans at the club’s São Jorge training ground. “To hear this mass shouting my name gives me goose bumps.”

This game against lowly Bragantino was just a State Championship match but 34,000 had packed in. The Gaviões da Fiel, or Hawks of the Faithful, Corinthians’ largest organised supporters club, covered their steep terrace with an enormous new black flag as samba drums pounded. The Pacaembu Stadium was alive with noise. Built in 1940 by the dictatorship, it is an art deco Roman amphitheatre, São Paulo’s football Coliseum.

Within the first minute the crowd was on its feet as Ronaldo broke through, shot, and the goalkeeper’s deflection was swiftly converted by Elias. “GOOOOOAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLL!” roared the radio commentators in their glass booths. The Hawks were in a frenzy. Over the PA system, the Hymn of the Corinthians began to play.

Ronaldo’s split on licensing and new sponsorship deals helped him earn $10m last year, says his agent Fabiano Farah. With money flooding in and the national team riding high after winning 2009’s Confederations Cup, Brazilian football is booming. Brazil traditionally loses its best players to the richer European leagues. Now, with Ronaldo’s success and a fast-expanding economy, they are coming back – last year, Edu joined Corinthians from Valencia, Palmeiras signed Edmilson from Villarreal and Fred joined Fluminense from Lyon.

After Brazil’s disastrous loss in the 1998 World Cup final was blamed on Ronaldo’s mysterious seizure, Roberto Carlos accused him of “chickening out” but the two renewed their friendship at Real Madrid. Ronaldo’s signing was a masterstroke for player and club. The three-time Fifa world player of the year escaped the shadows of injury, a faltering career at Inter Milan and his transvestite prostitutes scandal at a Rio de Janeiro love motel. Corinthians were back in the First Division after a humiliating relegation during a troubled partnership with Kia Joorabchian and his MSI agency, which culminated in the club severing all ties with him.

Ronaldo’s first goal for Corinthians in March 2009 was a dramatic last-minute equaliser against hated São Paulo rivals Palmeiras, in 40-degree heat in the dusty interior city of Presidente Prudente. I was on the terraces and the stadium exploded when his header went in. Ronaldo and hundreds of fans climbed either side of a perimeter fence which broke under the pressure. The next day, the broken fence made the front pages. Alfredo Penha, Presidente Prudente’s secretary of municipal works, declared it a tourist attraction. “It is impossible to measure the importance of this goal to the city,” Penha said.

Ronaldo’s two goals in a 3-1 away victory against Santos sealed the 2009 São Paulo State Championship for Corinthians. His second was among the best of his career – a swerve past the defender, an insolently graceful chip over the head of Santos goalkeeper Fábio Costa.

“The ball landed at the feet of a player who doesn’t miss,” said Pelé, Santos’s most famous player, watching in the stands. “To be king for a day at the home of the king is excellent,” Ronaldo replied.

But then Ronaldo was sidelined after breaking his hand mid-season. Corinthians slumped to a lacklustre mid-table finish in the national First Division Championship. It was another returning star, Adriano, who helped win it for Rio’s Flamengo, Brazil’s biggest team. Back in Brazil for an international, Adriano never returned to his club Inter Milan. He partied hard, dated a string of low-rent celebrity girls, disappeared into the dangerous Vila Cruzeiro favela were he grew up – then joined Flamengo, and finished the National Championship’s joint highest scorer with 19 goals.

Corinthians fans are proud of their emotional support for their team. They sing loudest when Corinthians concede a goal. They were at their loudest at that game at in January when Bragantino equalised. At left back, Roberto Carlos was running forward to fill gaps in midfield. He attempted a few of his trademark free kicks from outside the box without success. As torrential rain poured down, Ronaldo made the pass that led to the winner – an elegant, curling shot from outside the box by Jorge Henrique. Carlos and Henrique celebrated with a disco dance. Then Carlos collided with the bench and went off while Corinthians held on to win 2-1.

Carlos made little impression in Corinthians’ next game, a 2-1 victory over Oeste. Now another star is ready to steal his headlines: Manchester City’s Robinho has rejoined Santos, the club where he started out, on a six-month loan. At 26, Robinho, who cost City £32.5m, is at the peak of his career. It was initially thought that he would take a 30% cut on his weekly salary of £160,000, the Estado de São Paulo newspaper reported, with City paying 50% and Santos negotiating with partners to make up the difference. “The financial situation is important,” Robinho said then, echoing Adriano’s comments when he joined Flamengo. “But to be happy also counts.” OSM