It is a double '9' for 'The Phenomenon'. Ronaldo will wear the number 99 shirt, A.C. Milan officially announced ahead of the press conference to present the Brazilian striker.
" at Milan, Pippo (Filippo Inzaghi) has number 9 unconditional " Galliani says "I suggested number 99 because it's the closest thing to number 9, and Ronaldo excepted it"
After wearing number 9 at PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona, he received number 10 at Inter Milan because when Inter signed Ronaldo the club had prepared no shirts carrying the Brazilian's favoured No.9. Instead, counterfeit No.9 shirts appeared to satisfy local demand, forcing the club to play their new star as a No. 10 in order to cash in later on official shirt sales! He then received number 11 when he joined Real madrid and sold 2,000 #11 shirts on the first day after he joined Real Madrid from Inter Milan. When he left Madrid he was wearing his old No. 9 shirt.
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, better known as Ronaldo, is finally a Milan player. The Brazilian is a true champion and brings with him an impressive list of honours and personal triumphs. Nicknamed, 'The Phenomenon', 
Ronaldo has won the World Cup twice - 1994 and 2000 - as well as playing the 1998 final. He then became all-time topscorer in the World Cup finals last summer when netted his 15th goal to overtake Gerd Muller.
At an individual level, apart from the World Cup goalscoring record, Ronie has been awarded the Golden Ball on two occasions, in 1997 and 2002 while also lifting the UEFA player of the year in 1998 and FIFA player of the year for 1996, 1997 and 2002. His club honours make impressive reading: Brazilian Cup (Cruzeiro, 1993), Dutch Cup (PSV Eindhoven, 1996), Cup Winners Cup (Barcelona, 1997), UEFA Cup (Inter, 1998), Spanish League (Real Madrid, 2003) and two Spanish Super Cups (Barcelona, 1996; Real Madrid, 2003)
GALLIANI ON RONALDO
'All's well that ends well, so we are satisfied. Ronaldo signed at 5pm CET and will leave for Milan at 6.15pm CET. We will train tomorrow morning and start his preparation. From tomorrow, with all effect he will start his life as a Milan player.
Ronie has nothing but the right motivation because if he went to another foreign country he would have been paid more. He picked the more difficult solution and less well paid. He really wants to do well. I have spoken to him a lot lately and he is very motivated. Hopefully, the real Ronaldo will return, the one who is 'The Phenomenon'.
President Berlusconi has been kept in the loop very closely and knew the second after the deal was signed. The president deserves a big thank-you for once again providing the finances needed. We have two new stars, as we have replaced Jaap Stam with Massimo Oddo and Andriy Shevchenko with Ronaldo.
It is very exciting to have Ronaldo arrive, because of who he is, for all he has done and because he has written his own piece in the history of football. He has scored a lot of goals in Madrid and Real have officially thanked him for that. He's a real star and has also done well at Real. I am really pleased for him and Oddo, it looks like Milan can lift its head after what happened in the summer as we all know. I believe that Ronaldo should be well-received in Milan and I will only say that intelligent people cannot but understand that after five years a player can change clubs as lots of players do every year.
Comments