“Nah, the Brazilian one”: While the name ‘Ronaldo’ for younger generations of football fans seems inextricably linked to Portugal, it might be a different story for those old enough to have experienced a certain ‘O Fenomeno’ from Brazil. Now, a virtual exhibition pays tribute to ‘The Real Ronaldo’ to celebrate over three decades since Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima first worked his magic on the pitch.
Curated by retro football archivist A Store Like 94 with the help of 30 male and female artists, among them Jean Joao, 45 RPM and more, ‘R9 – The Real Ronaldo’ shows a selection of 30 art pieces celebrating the record-breaking striker from Brazil whose technical abilities took him from Cruzeiro to Barcelona, Madrid, Mailand and to the World Cup while catapulting both the Brazilian National Team and Nike within the world of football.
Wandering around in the exhibition, which is appropriately designed like a first-person video game straight from your noisy 90s home computer, the unique artworks all pick from the not-so-small pool of 90s’ and early 2000s’ R9 inspiration: From Ronaldo’s career-defining injury in the 2000 Copa Italia – and his comeback – to that one iconic (?) haircut that infamously got kids worldwide in trouble after copying it.
You can visit the virtual exhibit ‘R9 – The Real Ronaldo’ here. It is accompanied by daily Instagram posts throughout the whole month of January, in which the artists share the inspiration for their artworks alongside their favorite memories of one of football’s greatest strikers.
