Silent witness Ronaldo

Ronaldo suffered misery in the 1998 World Cup Final

BBC Sport Online's South American football expert Tim Vickery uncovers the background to superstar Ronaldo's dramatic return to Brazil.

Caught between Nike and the Brazilian government, there was no doubt which way Ronaldo would fall.

One neglected him when he was growing up in poverty, the other invested in him at the age of 17, when "they didn't know how good I would turn out to be, but they believed in me."

On Wednesday Ronaldo was giving evidence to a Commission of Inquiry in Brazil's Congress which is investigating the relationship between Nike and the national team.

The most dramatic moment was the first time he was asked about his individual contract with the sportswear multinational.

There were gasps in the auditorium when he said that he would not give details about the terms of the deal.

"I would like to talk about it, and there's no great mystery in the contents, but this is an international contract which has a clause which prevents me from revealing the details, and I would like to respect that clause."

The Federal Deputies were dumbstruck. They had, after all, brought him to Brasilia for the precise purpose of discovering whether Nike forced him to play in the 1998 World Cup final.

They wanted to know, for example, if there was a clause in the contract which stated that he should play 90 minutes of all Brazil's games in the tournament.

All you have to do is make a formal request to Nike International and I doubt if there would be any problems for them to give you a copy of the contract

  Ronaldo

His refusal to reply meant that as the testimony continued there was a hurried meeting between his lawyers and those of the Commission.

It was determined that after his open testimony there would be a short session closed to press and public in which he would be asked specific questions about his deal with Nike.

Commission President Aldo Rebelo later confirmed that the closed session had revealed little, and Deputy Eduardo Campos made a formal request for Ronaldo to hand over a copy of the contract within ten days.

Theoretically there is the possibility that the Inter Milan striker could be arrested for non-compliance.

In reality it is a paper threat, not least because he lives in Italy. As Ronaldo suggested, "all you have to do is make a formal request to Nike International and I doubt if there would be any problems for them to give you a copy of the contract."

Why on earth the Commission had not already carried out this fairly basic piece of investigation is anybody's guess.

Revealing the details of what happened to him on 12 July 1998 was less problematic, though occasional flashes of irritation punctuated Ronaldo's account of the day of the last World Cup final.

Under oath he took full reponsibility for making himself available for selection.

Taken to hospital after suffering a convulsion in his sleep, tests revealed no problem and Ronaldo felt medically, physically and psychologically ready to play.

It was a decision he said he would take again ten thousand times over.

He confirmed that he had no contact with Nike from the moment he woke up to the time he took the field.

Eduardo Campos asked him if he had been responsible for marking Zidane at corners, from which the Frenchman scored the first two goals in France's 3-0 win.

Ronaldo fixed Campos with a cold stare and asked in an ironic tone "is this really going to help the work of the Commission?"

He could not remember who had been marking Zidane, but added with a smile that whoever it was didn't do their job very well.