Young Brazilian Ronaldo's move from top Dutch side PSV Eindhoven to Spanish giants Barcelona this season was the right one to earn him the FIFA World Player of the Year title, his former coach said yesterday.
PSV assistant coach Rob Baan said the 20-year-old striker would not have won the most elite personal award in international soccer if he had stayed. 'I don't think he could win this award if he was still playing in Holland,' said Baan, who hosted a NIKE coaching clinic yesterday for Hong Kong Sports Institute's Under-15 scholarship players.
'It's his move to Barcelona that made him the first choice. He gets more attention in the world press in Spain than in Holland because the standard of the Spanish League is higher than the Dutch one. In terms of performance, if Ronaldo was with us, he could have done as well as he has been doing with Barcelona.' Ronaldo received more than twice as many votes as his nearest rival, last year's winner George Weah of AC Milan, in a poll of more than 100 international coaches. Baan, 53, praised Ronaldo's achievement, saying: 'Ronaldo is already a world-class player at such a young age. He is very fast, very skilful and most of all, he has scored so many beautiful goals, which is the most important thing in soccer.' 'I am very sorry that we had to release him at the end of last season. It's a great loss to us. But Barcelona offered him so much money that we couldn't hold him.
'He is still developing and growing. I believe he will continue to be the top scorer in Europe.' He said the Brazilian did have his weaknesses.
He said: 'Ronaldo did not have a very good disciplinary record with us. Like the other great Brazilian player Romario, Ronaldo was sometimes late for training or even failed to show up. We fined him many times because of that.' PSV head coach Dick Advocaat said Ronaldo deserved to win the title.
The former Dutch national head coach said: 'I was surprised he could improve so tremendously after only six months with Barcelona. He is an excellent player and he deserves to win.'