Real engineered ‘Ronaldo in Paris?’

There is a theory that on the eve before Ronaldo joined Real Madrid from Manchester United for a world record fee of £80 million, greater forces were at work. On his Guardian blog, Mark Borkowski argues that it is highly likely Ronaldo’s appearance in a nightclub in America canoodling with the infamous socialite Paris Hilton was no accident. Borkowski suggests it was orchestrated by Real Madrid, as part of a media onslaught designed to place their future player on the course to celebrity stratosphere.

I agree with Borkowski, it is undoubtedly a marriage made in franchise heaven and the headlines lived up to expectation. I can’t help but think however, and I may be naiive, that there is no -way on earth Real Madrid could organise a piss up in a brewery let alone a media campaign that involved placing Christiano Ronaldo alongside Paris Hilton the night before the player moved to Real Madrid.

There are many reasons why, the first of which being Real’s appalling pursuit of Ronaldo last summer, the protracted transfer that never was led to an awful season for Real and was rather embarrassing for all involved, in short, a PR disaster. Second, it was inevitable Ronaldo would go. Third, and this is crucial to Borkowski’s argument, it is argued that ‘they want to hook the American Latino market, which is where the US's huge soccer audience is to be found’; why then, does Ronaldo appear on the front cover of the UK tabloids? And why are these the only articles highlighted? I would suggest the reason is this would not be deemed worthy news elsewhere.

Ronaldo is the best football player in the world. He has just been bought from one of the biggest clubs in world football for a monumental world record fee. The fact he is in a club with Paris Hilton is inevitable, that it is the day before the deal is confirmed is credit to her.