Brazil’s iconic striker Ronaldo is currently the president of a Spanish club, but he once had a desire to invest in an MLS club.
Brazil superstar Ronaldo revealed that he had a dream to purchase an MLS franchise before reaching out to other options in the European continent.
The 45-year-old was a small part of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers in the North American Soccer League before it was shut down in 2016.
It was during that time that the two-time World Cup winner wanted to invest in the United States. However, Ronaldo could not sustain the burden of the market price in the country during that period.
While talking with Flow Podcast, he said: “I went to New York and I had a meeting with the MLS president and he presented his ideas ‘you can win all you want but if you don’t have €70m for the franchise, you go nowhere’. That made me reject that project.
“Then I went to London to study sports management and sports marketing.”
Regardless of his failure, Ronaldo persistently searched for a club that could pour his money into.
The Brazil striker added: “I looked a lot, in the [English] Championship but everything was too expensive.
“The Premier League is a complete success worldwide and so is the Championship, but you had to have £60m, so I then looked in Portugal and Spain, where the prices were more affordable.”
Further, after the 2018 World Cup, he eventually acquired a 51 per cent stake in Real Valladolid and is the president of the club at the moment.
Ronaldo said: “I heard there was an opportunity at Valladolid. I negotiated for a week and ended up paying €30 million (£26m/$34m).”
The Spanish club is currently competing in Segunda Division with 10 points behind leaders Almeria but only four points short of the automatic promotion spots.
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