YOKOHAMA, 30 June — Ronaldo has the chance to get back to his best and prove what a great player he is in today’s World Cup final against Germany, according to Pele who gave the young striker the courage to recover from serious injury. “Ronaldo has proved a lot. He is intelligent because he protects himself. In the last three games he was good but he was very, very careful to make sure he could play in the final,” Pele told Reuters. Ronaldo was substituted in the last two games.
“Now that he is in the final, now that he doesn’t need to worry about anything, he’ll just try to play. This is a good opportunity for him to come back as the great player he was before and become the best player of the tournament.”
Pele visited Ronaldo after he suffered a terrible knee injury in the 2000 Italian Cup final and told the striker he too had got badly injured at the 1966 finals and doctors told him he might not play again, but he went on to win the World Cup in 1970.
Ronaldo is top scorer at the current tournament with six goals and his total of 10 at World Cup finals puts him second to Pele in the Brazilian scoring charts and just four short of the record held by Germany striker Gerd Mueller.
Pele expects Ronaldo to win the world crown with Brazil in the country’s first meeting with Germany at a World Cup finals.
The Brazilian great had earlier predicted they would reach the final if they could overcome England in the last eight.
Brazil won that match 2-1 before their 1-0 semifinal victory over Turkey put them through to today’s showdown.
Asked if they would beat Germany Pele said: “That’s what we expect. I said that because of the presence of both teams (in the quarterfinal), the way both teams were growing at that time, there was no doubt the winners would reach the final.
“But the final is one game. Germany are a strong team who have played a lot of big tournaments, they’ve played at World Cups, they have experience and it will be a difficult game.”
Germany, like Brazil, struggled to qualify for the finals after a series of poor performances but both countries have got their act together at the tournament to reach the top.
“The Germans knew they were not a great team. But they got together as a team, they put themselves in a position where they don’t concede goals and that was the strength of the German team.
“But on the other side Brazil have two of the players who make a difference and that is why we have the best attack of the tournament,” said Pele, referring to Ronaldo and Rivaldo who have scored 11 of the country’s 16 goals at the finals.
Pele said Germany would badly miss playmaker Michael Ballack, who has pulled the strings in midfield and scored three goals in their march to the final but is suspended after getting his second booking of the knockout stage in the semifinal.
“Ballack is a big loss, no doubt, because he is a player who organizes the midfield and he comes forward sometimes and is good in the air,” said Pele.
But the Brazilian maestro was less complimentary about striker Miroslav Klose, despite the five goals that make him joint second top scorer at the tournament with Rivaldo. “Of course, we must respect the players who score goals, but Klose is not a talent. He can score a goal and he is tough to play against because he is strong and quick but he is not an intelligent player. “He is someone we must respect but I am not worried about a player who just scores because he needs someone to set him up, to make a good pass. This is important.”
But while Pele expects Brazil to lift the trophy for a record fifth time in their third final in succession, he also offered a word of caution to the players.
“When Brazil came to this World Cup they were not the favorites. Now everybody says Brazil are favorites,” said Pele.
“I don’t want to think like that. I want the players to be careful and respect the German team because every game has its own history. That is my advice to the Brazilian players.”
