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Ronaldo (left) bought Real Valladolid seven years ago but optimism has turned to despair
Virtually overnight, a modest Spanish football club were propelled onto the international stage. The reason for this drastic status change was simple. Real Valladolid’s new owner was Ronaldo Nazario.
Arturo Posada, editor of local newspaper El Norte de Castilla, can still vividly remember the day Ronaldo arrived in his home town in north-west Spain in September 2018.
“Excitement was through the roof. Ronaldo went into the street to parade among the crowds. It was like a procession of Semana Santa [Spain’s Holy week] – even the mayor welcomed him with open arms,” Posada says.
Only a few weeks earlier, the World Cup-winning Brazilian – often heralded as the greatest player of his generation – had sent shockwaves through the country after paying £25 million to become majority stakeholder in La Liga side Valladolid.
Global media descended, including a documentary team to capture Ronaldo’s maiden season in charge. Shirt manufacturers began churning out custom-made “Ronaldo 9” tops in preparation for the team’s summer training camp in California – Valladolid’s first tour outside Europe. And the number of season-ticket holders hit an all-time high of more than 21,000.
Ronaldo, who retired as a player in 2011 after a trophy-laden career at Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, took little time in setting out his objectives as president. First, he would end Valladolid’s reputation as a “yo-yo” club by cementing their position in La Liga. Then, after five years, he promised the team would be playing in the Champions League.
Off the pitch, plans centred on revamping both the 26,000-seat José Zorrilla Stadium and the training ground, as well as investing in the youth academy to compete with the likes of northern rivals Athletic Bilbao.
“I want to make this club much better and bigger than when I got it,” he said shortly after taking the helm.
Less than seven years later, however, the euphoria of Ronaldo’s early tenure has morphed into bitter resentment towards the president. A seemingly irreparable rupture has emerged, with fans calling for him to sell the club as they head towards their third relegation from La Liga under his ownership.
Home games are dogged by protests outside the stadium, while chants of “Ronaldo go home” have become the backdrop to the team’s increasingly lacklustre displays. Meanwhile, half-time walkouts for the falling number of attendees have become the norm.
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Valladolid are unhappy with Ronaldo’s broken promises and diminishing appearances at the Jose Zorrilla stadium - Getty Images /Denis Doyle
Last month, Valladolid’s official fans’ association started turning on the players, too. After the side lost 7-1 at Bilbao, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the league with just 16 points from 28 games, the association published an open letter demanding refunds for travelling fans.
“Things are very tense,” says Mario Puertas, president of the fans’ group.
To those on the outside, Ronaldo’s fall from a god-like figure, who during his 17-year playing career seemed to turn everything he touched into gold, to such a figure of ire has come as something of a shock.
Yet fans of the club have seen this coming for a while, having witnessed first hand the gradual unravelling of the Brazilian’s presidency.
According to Puertas, the first sign of trouble was his increasing absences from matches after the team’s first successful season, when they finished 13th.
“At first, Ronaldo was very engaged. He spent a lot of time here. He attended games, he showed concern for the city, the fans, the atmosphere in the stadium. But over the past seven years, that has faded to the point where he barely comes to Valladolid any more.
“This season, he has only been to the stadium once – at the first match of the season – because there was a ceremony honouring a team that won a title here 40 years ago. Right now, the feeling among fans is one of complete abandonment.”
Indecisiveness and lack of pulling power
The change happened around the time Valladolid were relegated in Ronaldo’s second full season in charge. After waiting until the end of the campaign to sack manager Sergio, he gained a reputation for indecision, while it became clear the “Ronaldo effect” was failing to attract the world-class talent many expected.
The arrival amid a goal drought at Valladolid of Everton striker Sandro Ramírez, despite the fact he had failed to find the net in two years, only added to frustrations.
“When it came to recruiting players, we thought it’s not the same if a club president calls you as when Ronaldo himself calls and says, ‘Come join my project’,” Puertas says. “We believed that doors would open for Valladolid, that we would get international recognition, and that this was a huge opportunity. But from a sporting perspective, the team has got worse.”
Ronaldo’s growing distance from the club has been exacerbated by a series of globe-trotting social-media posts showing him on trips to Japan and attending Coldplay gigs in Abu Dhabi while Valladolid’s performances on the pitch have dropped off.
Ronaldo Nazario enjoying @coldplay's recent show in Abu Dhabi with his family️
#ColdplayAbuDhabi • @celinalockspic.twitter.com/aPZUWVJNyv
— ColdplayXtra (@coldplayxtra) January 16, 2025
On one particularly bruising occasion, he was seen live-streaming a charity tennis match while his team were losing 2-0 at home to Getafe. Fans have since made light of it, using a comically large ball and rackets to mimic tennis games in the stands – but the underlying feeling is one of deep-rooted unhappiness.
“Some of his social media activity has caused damage – and that kind of thing obviously hurts,” Puertas says.
Ronaldo’s vocal desire to one day become president of Brazil’s football confederation has only added fuel to the fire, with some viewing his role in the directors’ box as purely a means of adding credentials to his bid, although he pulled out of the latest elections after failing to gain sufficient support.
Rising tensions came to a head in April 2022 after a disastrous attempt to change the club’s historic crest was met with fierce opposition, resulting in a fan referendum and subsequent reversal of the decision.
For many, it served as proof of how detached from the fans their president really was at a time when they could see how far their team were falling from the grand promises that had been made.
Not everyone has taken Ronaldo’s apparently growing indifference to heart, however – particularly those who have come to view him foremost as a businessman.
Almost immediately after hanging up his boots, the former striker showed a keen interest in acquiring the skills to run his own stable of businesses, moving to London for two years to learn English and study marketing.
As well as Valladolid, he has owned stakes in Brazilian side Cruzeiro and MLS team Fort Lauderdale, while his wide-ranging portfolio extends from wine and television to talent management.
While Ronaldo, as a former player, may have been expected to have more sympathy than a typical investor in football clubs, lifelong Valladolid fan and local radio presenter Beatriz Olandía says the reality is of someone juggling various business interests.
“The problem is that we still think about football like we did in the Nineties in Spain – where club owners were deeply connected to the team, sometimes even risking their personal fortunes. I’ve been a Valladolid fan since I was little. I was raised with the club’s colours from a young age and my father has always been very involved with the club.
“But we can’t expect someone else to have that same feeling – not just empathy, but actual emotional attachment. That connection is something fans have, but the people who invest money or take risks with their investments in a football club like Real Valladolid are thinking differently.”
There are factors outside of Ronaldo’s control that have contributed to Valladolid’s struggles too – not least La Liga’s stringent wage ceilings.
Unlike Real Madrid and Barcelona, who have salary caps of €755 million and €426 million respectively, Valladolid must operate within a budget of just €30 million. This severely limits their ability not only to sign top players but also hold on to existing talent: last summer, fewer than half of the 11 players who left were replaced.
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Valladolid’s budget is dwarfed by that of the La Liga giants such as Barcelona, whose former president Josep Maria Bartomeu (left) is pictured - Reuters/Albert Gea
Olandía believes fans do not necessarily take these financial realities into account when levelling criticism at their president. “When Ronaldo arrived, people thought, ‘Well, this means a strong financial investment, access to good players and everything will be fixed’.
“I think the mistake was in those high expectations, because in the end, football is still a business – and it just didn’t work out.”
Despite declaring a year ago that he would leave the club only when he had left the legacy he wanted, Ronaldo has now admitted that he intends to sell his 82 per cent stake.
Many will see it as the end of a turbulent period in which the promise of riches from one of sport’s global icons never came close to being realised.
Although the club’s finances are relatively secure – they have turned more than €40m in profit over the past five years – a number of the team’s best players have been sold and the stadium renovation remains the only redevelopment to have been seen through to completion.
As for where it leaves Ronaldo, whose ferocious turn of speed and magical eye for goal earned him the nickname “O Fenomeno” (The Phenomenon) during his playing career, that is unclear.
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Ronaldo wheels away after scoring a hat-trick for Real Madrid against Manchester United which earned him an ovation from the Old Trafford faithful - PA/Phil Noble
His fighting talk continues. In December, the 48-year-old told a room of journalists: “We are on a very bad streak, but we are going to fight to get out of it and improve.”
Today, however, he is far more likely to be found taking refuge in his home country or in the presidential box of his beloved Real Madrid than he is in Valladolid, where fans seem unwilling to forgive him.
Puertas believes Ronaldo’s reputation as an astute businessman has taken a hit, not just in Spain but globally. Indeed, when he does eventually sell Valladolid, it is likely he will struggle to recoup his full investment – and other clubs may be wary of a future approach.
But although he may have struggled to translate his success in front of goal into his club’s boardroom, it is widely agreed that the Brazilian’s status among the demigods of the game is safe for eternity.
“Ronaldo as a footballer, of course, will always be remembered in history,” Puertas says. “But Ronaldo as a president? I don’t think there’s anyone here who would speak positively about that.”
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