World Cup: Running with the Ronaldos in the blogosphere · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

for its debut in Germany, it's the buzz around the football personalities that fuels the overheated blogosphere. Brazilians love to talk, and now nothing is more important to talk about than the World Cup. While the ball hasn't yet rolled for the champions, the media are already caught by the fever, and a nation of would-be football coaches is meddling with news and analyses in ways that would fit better the gossip columns of the tabloids.
That's especially true for Ronaldo, the player who still gets most of the media attention. From foot blisters to his model girlfriend — to say nothing of the debate with President Lula about food and drink excesses — the forward is always on spot in the World Cup non- coverage of football. The blogosphere follows the pattern, and goes beyond.
“The TV coverage insists on showing Ronaldo's foot blisters, the fever, the images of the ‘The Phenomenal One’ playing the DJ in a night club on his day off, without mentioning the misunderstandings with President Lula”
Facts and gossips on the team – Visual and Verbal Politics
“Lula could have avoided mentioning Ronaldo's fatness in the video conference with the Brazilian team. Perhaps his intention was not clearly stated and emphatic when he said, ‘I've met Ronaldo personally and he is skinny, but everybody is saying he is fat….’ But it is important to mention the report of André Kfouri about the situation. According to the ESPN journalist present at the conference, Ronaldo was avoiding any hard rejoinder to Lula's remark in his interview. But, as the correspondents kept pressing him, he finally mentioned the President's known friendliness with alcohol. One more time, in the absence of something worth reporting, the press pushes for declarations and stories with zero information value.”
A great idiocy – Balipodo.com
“World Cup news flashes, mainly from the national team, torturing us with ‘important’ notes such as, ‘Ronaldo left the hotel to shit and walk. Look there! Now you are seeing an exclusive, he is shitting, shitting… wow! now he is gonna walk… he is walking! we will try an interview… later – in three minutes – an interview with THE PHENOMENAL ONE, telling us how he felt when shitting and walking in Germany.”
Am I, Cup? – Dull Life
“The press coverage has gone beyond the concept of ‘thorough’, becoming repetitive and counterproductive. The main principle seems to be the exhaustion of the national team in a meaningless never-ending exposition. Any idiocy becomes good enough for a news lead as the reporting staff stays glued to the Brazilian players and far from the event's important news. They debate before and after the trainings stating obvious opinions and as a result, the public watches something very close to a live transmission of grass growing.”
Unbalanced coverage – Gardenal.org
Ronaldo — ‘The Phenomenal One’ — was the promise in 1994, the victim in 1998, and the hero in 2002. He's been dealing with the media for enough time now, and it seems this relationship is an on-going conversation that works according to its own logic.
While the established media fights for the continuous attention of the public using well worn strategies, the Internet is spontaneously presenting new modes of coverage and the newer idols seem to fit better into these channels. That would be the case of Ronaldinho. The suffix -inho means ‘little one’ in Portuguese, but he is the great YouTube.com and google video champion.
“It's World Cup time! I've seen about 1000 video clips of Brazilian BAMF Ronaldinho this week. These two are particularly sweet (the second one was most likely made by the Germans).”
Ronaldinho – Behind the Music – Side A
Click here to check a Ronaldinho classic youtube
Interestingly, we should note that Ronaldinho has his own blog*, where he reports directly from Germany and his uncle manages the postings, one or more each day. There are also some special reports called, “The never seen Brazil” from YouTube.com. Check out this remarkable video, [youtube.com].
Brazil, the online team – La Biblia y el Calefon
(*) we could not confirm the authenticity of the blog
This is from the youtube collection “The Never Seen Brazil“
“Ronaldinho plays in a bunch of Google Videos — including commercials, (some fake).”
Ronaldinho on Google Video – Google Blogoscoped
When you thought we've had enough of the contest of the Ronaldos, a new sensation from Portugal comes on the scene – the young and attractive Cristiano Ronaldo. Unlike the two Brazilians, C. Ronaldo has already made his début in the World Cup as the Portuguese team played yesterday to a one to nothing victory over Angola. It's plain to see how the local blogosphere quickly responds as soon as the games begin. It is also interesting to notice the greatly increased participation of female bloggers in the football debates depending on the ‘cuteness’ of the players.
“anyway, i need to announce this! CRISTIANO RONALDO IS SUPER DUPER HOT!!! the dude down there! hahah!! he's uber love!”
Fifa Fever – Burn-Tralala
“I'm in full WORLD CUP MANIA!!!! Nothing gets me pumped up more then sexy men playing around with a small white and black ball.”
You can World my Cup – kokopuffs0616
“I was talking with Ivan the Goodies and June Hoo, good friends from college through MSN yesterday evening. I wonder why guys never liked Cristiano Ronaldo. I mean come on laa…give the guy a chance can or not? He's a great player what. Anyways, last night's match between Portugal and Angola, C.Ronaldo was seriously pissed because he tried to score about 3 times but his attempt failed. The last attempt before he was sent out by Luis Felipe the coach, was the time where he got really super pissed. He was stomping his feet so hard. Man, I totally feel you. Maybe if he was not sent out, he would've or might score another goal for Portugal.”
Pure Massacre – Life Less Ordinary
It's not clear if it's solely a ‘gender reaction’ but the male bloggers really do tend to be more critical about the ‘looks’ of his game.
“C. Ronaldo has showed one more time that he is not made for the national team. The ‘cute’ center with the left leg shows that he doesn't know how to respect the opponents. The yellow card presented by the referee shows his known dark side, indicating that he won't get rid of his bad fame”
Angola – Salting Poppies
“We saw a Cristiano Ronaldo that would look for the big plasma screens after each time he had the ball to check out how beautiful he was”
Football World Championship – City of Guimaraes
“Cristiano Ronaldo is unbelievable faggy with 3/4-length flared sleeves! Seriously…there is totally room in a World of Tolerance for gay-bashing the shit out of this fancy Dan! He also sulked and threw tantrums like a local business leader's daughter after being snubbed off…”
i drink GRITTY HACK sportsdrink – crude futures
There's going to be a LOT of talk about these Ronaldos during the World Cup, each one having his own set of fans and detractors. The beauty of the blogosphere is that it reveals the great diversity among the many audiences and surprises that few would have expected. Blog coverage is obviously both highly personal and worldly. Such is the nature of an interactively shared global experience.