Nobody doubts that Ronaldo Nazario, the legendary Brazilian striker from the 90s and early 2000s, is one of the best footballers of all time. Currently you can score big with football bets with 1xBet when wagering on other extraordinary footballers too. His career took him through many teams from Brazil and Europe, including:
- Cruzeiro;
- PSV;
- Barcelona;
- Inter Milan;
- Real Madrid;
- AC Milan;
- and Corinthians.
In 1993, the legendary player joined Brazilian football team Cruzeiro from the academy of São Cristóvão. Of course, as a newcomer, he needed to fight his way into the first team. For this reason, it was thought that he could be loaned out or even outright transferred right after his arrival into Cruzeiro. The 1xBet platform allows you to score big with excellent football bets, which you can also make on all Brazilian football squads.
Representatives from Cruzeiro began to find teams that could be interested in securing the services of Ronaldo. Here it is when we need to introduce another name, Manuel Neira. He is a former Chilean player who, at the same age of Ronaldo, also promised to be a prolific goalscorer. In fact, both Ronaldo and Neira had been the top scorers of the U-17 South American championship of that year.
Neira’s performances caught the eye of Cruzeiro, who began to inquire about a possible signing of the player.
A completely failed assessment
Neira was a player of Colo-Colo at the time, which is one of the most important football teams in Chile. At the 1xBet platform you can always bet with ease on the most important football teams from Chile and other countries too. The Chilean squad was approached by representatives from Cruzeiro. They came with a proposal. They would offer Ronaldo to Colo-Colo, and in exchange, the Chilean team would give Neira plus $100,000 dollars. You don’t really encounter those kinds of deals every day.
The representatives from Colo-Colo rejected the proposal almost immediately. In hindsight it is tempting to say they were completely out of their mind. However, it is necessary to be at that moment in order to understand their reasoning.
One of the main problems of Ronaldo during his career was his weight. In fact, even early in his career it was easy to gain a few kilograms that diminished his performances. This worried the representatives from the Chilean squad who, in recent years, and with a little bit of regret, stated that Neira, by contrast, was in perfect physical form. Also, they were sure that Neira had the talent to become one of the best Chilean footballers ever, and they were also sure that Ronaldo was no better than him at that moment. For that reason, they decided to keep him and reject the chance to sign none other than Ronaldo.
Of course, the name of Manuel Neira is largely unknown outside of Chilean football circles, while Ronaldo is one of the best footballers of all time. However, in 1993, when both players were starting their careers, it was virtually impossible to guess how different their careers would turn out to be.
The Chilean had a career that was spent in Chile and in many other countries around the world, and it was very promising at the beginning. Sadly, for different circumstances, he never managed to consolidate himself as a prolific striker. This differs completely from names like Marcelo Salas and Iván Zamorano, who were prolific Chilean strikers who excelled in some of the best teams in the world. By the way, punters can bet with lots of ease at the 1xBet website, where it is also possible to place wagers on the best football squads from all across the world.
Of course, this is not the first and certainly will not be the last time that a team rejects a player for “not being good enough”, only for him to become a legend. Zinedine Zidane, for example, was rejected by Newcastle in the 1990s. Even Colo-Colo, a few years after rejecting Ronaldo, also rejected Hernán Crespo, who is also one of the most prolific Argentine strikers.