Ronaldo Nazario reveals reason behind Barca exit: ‘It was never in my hands’

One of the world’s greatest goalscorers Ronaldo Nazario says he actually wanted to stay at Barcelona counter to the club’s decision not to extend his contract.

“I signed a contract renewal at the end of the season and went away with the Brazil national team.

“Five days later, they called me to tell me that I couldn’t continue with the renewal.

“It was never in my hands. I wanted to stay.

“If the club didn’t value me as I thought they should, then the decision wasn’t in my hands. I would have liked to have stayed, but it wasn’t up to me,” Ronaldo claims.

Earlier in 2018, the Brazilian said to Diario AS that he left after ‘losing confidence’ in the Barcelona board.

Former Blaugrana president Joan Gaspart, however, revealed in the same year that the player got a much better financial offer from Milan and took the decision to leave while the board were celebrating his contract extension.

“In tears, [Ronaldo] told me that he was sorry but his agents had a much better offer than ours and that it was better for all parties for him to go to another club to make much more money.”

Even though Ronaldo would spend five years at Real Madrid afterwards, he has never become an enemy towards Barcelona. After all, the Brazilian became La Liga’s top scorer with 34 goals during his maiden season at Barca. He also helped the Catalans to win UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and Copa del Rey.

The 43-year-old is currently the president of Real Valladolid. The Brazilian legend reportedly invested €30m in the club ahead of the 2018/19 season.