and there was a festival atmosphere about
the Bobby Robson era.”
Laurent Blanc, Luis Enrique, Fernando Couto
and a returning Hristo Stoichkov had signed
that same summer, but there was no doubt
who claimed top billing. It took the Brazilian
just five minutes to announce himself as the
new matador in town. With little more than
a swivel and burst of pace, he danced past
two defenders before unleashing a 25-yard
opener in the first leg of the Spanish Super
Cup against Atletico Madrid. By full-time he’d
destroyed Los Colchoneros with another goal,
following a glorious elastico assist for Ivan
de la Pena in his side’s 5-2 win.
The carnival had arrived. A supercharged
Ronaldo plundered 13 goals in just 11 league
appearances as Barça reached the summit,
two points ahead of Real Madrid.“I once saw Ronaldo score a goal for Barça
where he beat five or six players,” Robson
later reminisced of one such early match to
FourFourTwo. “Diego Maradona at his best
was the best I ever saw. Ronaldo would be
a close second, though.”
That goal remains a vivid postcard moment
two and a half decades on. The north-west
city of Santiago de Compostela is the final
destination of a 500-mile Catholic pilgrimage
from southern France, and one night there
in October 1996, Ronaldo gained possession
by the halfway line and mimicked the route.
Zigzagging past a handful of defenders, he
picked up speed, then spun out of their orbit.
By the time the ball hit the net, Robson’s look
was one of astonishment. The reaction is as
iconic as the goal itself.
“Honestly, that goal was a disgrace,” says
Abelardo. “You can see Robson putting his
hands on his head in disbelief after Ronaldo
scored, but we all did. I remember looking
around and everyone was in the same pose.
The best I’ve seen, totally unrepeatable by
nearly any footballer alive. Maradona against
England, Messi against Getafe and Ronaldo
against Compostela. That’s it.”
Barcelona were beginning to click under
Robson, with the festival feeling still flickering
into autumn. Ronaldo followed his mesmeric
Compostela strike with a sublime hat-trick at
home to Valencia, battering through players
like a wrecking ball through condemned
buildings. Los Che boss Luis Aragones could
only snarl on the touchline, perhaps aware
that he would be replaced within weeks by
Jorge Valdano, who famously declared of
his predecessor’s tormentor, “Ronaldo’s not
a man, he’s a herd.”
An 8-0 October annihilation of struggling
Logrones was to define Robson’s tenure in
many ways. The Camp Nou’s Cules olé’d their
appreciation, but critics were less impressed
with Bobby’s bulldozing Barça.matches from the stands, while his son Jordi
was on the books when Robson arrived, only
to join Manchester United for £1.4 million in
the Englishman’s first summer.
Robson and Mourinho had marched into
a club mired in political turmoil; one with egos
and outrageous talent, but no major trophy
to show for two seasons’ toil and backbiting.
It was a team fully in transition: captain Jose
Mari Bakero was featuring less and less, with
a 25-year-old Pep Guardiola starting to wear
the armband regularly. It was also a side that
would perhaps never really feel like Bobby
Robson’s, whatever he might achieve during
his two-year contract.
The pressure was immense. At least those
morning drives along the sea could help take
the edge off.
“RONALDO’S NOT A MAN, HE’S A HERD”
“Bobby,” notoriously frugal president Nunez
snapped, “You know your job depends on
this?” Robson’s seat in the dugout was still
cold, yet Barcelona had just broken the world
transfer record on a 19-year-old, simply on
his recommendation.
“When Ronaldo came to Barça from PSV,
there wasn’t the internet or social media, but
there was a runrun – the buzz about him was
gigantic,” recalls writer and LaLigaTV pundit,
Graham Hunter. “There was a feeling of lots
of elements all coming together in a cocktail,
“HOnESTLY, THAT GOAL WAS
A DISGRACE. ROBSOn PUT HIS
HAnDS On HIS HEAD, BUT WE
ALL DID. THE BEST I’VE SEEn”
BOBBY’S
BARÇABelow Robson
staked his own
reputation on
signing teenage
talent Ronaldo