Legendary former Brazil striker Ronaldo has revealed that his infamous haircut for the 2002 World Cup was actually a tactical plan to take the pressure off him.
Ronaldo had seen his 1998 World Cup ruined by the pressure that built on him, leading to him suffering a seizure on the day of the final. Brazil would go on to lose that game to France, with Ronaldo surprisingly starting despite having been admitted to hospital earlier that day.
Between the two tournaments, the iconic star suffered a succession of devastating injuries, including a ruptured cruciate ligament. His game-time was severely limited between April 2000 and the tournament kicking off as a result.
Much of the talk going into the World Cup surrounded his fitness and whether he could fire Brazil to a fifth title. Soon though, that talk turned towards the haircut he sported for the semi-final win over Turkey and the final against Germany.
It has since been suggested that the haircut was inspired by a character from Brazilian cartoon series Turma da Monica. But in the time since then, Ronaldo was revealed it was actually a tactical move to change the conversation away from his fitness.
"I had an injury in my leg and everybody was talking about that. I decided to cut my hair and leave the small thing there. I come to training and everybody saw me with bad hair," he told ESPN in 2018.
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"Everybody was talking about the hair and forgot about the injury. I could stay more calm and relaxed and focused on my training. I'm not proud about the hair itself because it was pretty strange. But it was a good way to change the subject."
He has now also apologised to parents across the world after millions opted to copy his radical style. Ronaldo joked that even his own mother "hated" him for what he did to his hair.
"My mum – and millions of mums around the world – they all hate me to this day I met some people whose son had the same haircut. I apologise! I'm very sorry for that," he told Good Morning Britain.
Ronaldo's decision to change the subject proved to be a masterstroke, with Il Fenomeno living up to his nickname in Japan and South Korea. He scored eight goals across the tournament to win the Golden Boot and fire Brazil to lifting the World Cup.
It was the perfect way to bury his demons from the 1998 edition of the tournament and the injury-ravaged years that followed. A new documentary will look at the legendary striker's life and detail how his advisor Rodrigo Paiva helped him throught the tough times.
“The path from ’98 to 2002 was very tough. Before the World Cup, I had doubts. Rodrigo had been with me through the recovery, we went through Calvary together," Ronaldo told The Athletic.
"We were together again, for my victory, after fighting through such a serious injury, such a tough recovery, and the ghosts of ’98. That hug said everything that I was feeling in that moment.”
