So, Ronaldo the soccer world’s flavor of the next decade, looks set for Inter Milan. While the player himself has been starring opposite his real-life girlfriend in a soap-opera called “Workout”, the real tug-of- love has been taking place in the boardrooms of Inter and Barcelona. As is common with Spanish clubs, Barca had signed Ronaldo to a long-term contract and added a huge hands-off clause to dissuade other clubs. Ronaldo, or rather his agent, declared that Barcelona had reneged on its part of the deal ù basically, the club wouldn’t pay the player’s income tax ù and said the player was on his way to Inter and all bets were effectively off. Enter Nike, for which Ronaldo is its marquee player, to smooth things over, allegedly using the transfer as leverage to make the Catalan club switch its supplier. No dice there. Barcelona insisted he buy his way out of his contract, some $26.3 million. Enter Inter, which footed the bill. Barcelona wanted a transfer fee on top of the buy-out. Inter said no. So the two clubs hot-footed it to FIFA, which rubber-stamped the buy-out exclusive of a transfer fee and told the clubs to sort the matter out for themselves. FIFA is not daft. It saw the licking UEFA took at hands of the European Commission over the Bosman affair, and with the Eurocrats perched eagerly over these high-profile proceedings, wisely washed its hands of the whole affair. Ronaldo will be in the blue-and-black of Inter, Barca will use the cash to pluck another Brazilian, Sonny Anderson, and FIFA keeps its clout. And the lesson? Well, we knew it all along. You can’t keep a want-away player, contracts are worth next to nothing, and the days of lofty FIFA pronouncements are over. My only question concerns Ronaldo. Yes, the boy can play a bit, but how’s his acting? by Soccer America Senior Editor Duncan Irving