If negotiation professors ever need to argue to their students that their negotiation scenarios are realistic, here is a nice article to share. A few weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal covered the story of Ronaldo, the Brazilian soccer star, who is interested in making a comeback. The truth is remarkably similar to the case of Diega Primadonna, offered as a negotiation case in our casebook on Dispute Resolution, and similar to the case of Sally Soprano, offered by the Program on Negotiation and other textbooks. Aging star, sidelined by injury, returns to game with creative contract to meet both parties’s needs.
In March, after 384 days off the field, Ronaldo entered a soccer stadium again, this time wearing the shirt of São Paulo’s Corinthians for a match in an agricultural town of 95,000 deep in Brazil’s interior. Despite lumbering back some 20 pounds overweight, Ronaldo has scored five goals in seven appearances and tapped into a huge fan base in a nation where soccer is called a second religion. There’s already talk about putting the striker back on Brazil’s national team.
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Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo plays for the Corinthians on Tuesday in Brazil. The rough-and-tumble Brazilian leagues may look to be a huge step down for Ronaldo, who once stayed in five-star hotels from London to Istanbul. But by the accounts of those close to him, the 32-year-old, whose full name is Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, is living a fairy-tale rebound that could happen only in his home country.
The striker’s greatest moment of glory came playing for Brazil in the 2002 World Cup, when he scored twice against Germany’s almost unbeatable goalkeeper Oliver Khan to take the title.
Knee injuries have three times upset Ronaldo’s career. In 2000, he snapped a right-knee tendon, sidelining him for over a year. Last February, his other knee gave in during a match in Italy, and the striker rolled on the ground in tears. According to Ronaldo’s doctor, Joaquim Grava, Ronaldo’s injury, known as a patellar tendon rupture, is rare but curable with surgery and 10 months of rest. Returning to soccer, says Dr. Grava, is a matter of willpower and grueling therapy.
According to his agent, by last fall Ronaldo was on the mend and entertaining multimillion-dollar offers from the sort of up-and-coming teams in Europe and the Persian Gulf who are always interested in marquee names — even old and bruised ones.
In an unexpected turn, Corinthians made an offer to keep Ronaldo in Brazil. Corinthians couldn’t afford a European-size salary. The club pays him $175,000 a month (still a huge fee by Brazilian standards) and sweetened the deal by sharing sponsorship earnings, and giving Ronaldo 50% of ticket sales from any foreign matches.
Is this a fairy tale or a good negotiation lesson all around?
On a similar note, I have recently lost a bunch of weight and have been wearing more “form fitting” outfits to show off my new physique. Life was going great until my boss rejected my proposal for a new bioethics online game which combines ethics AND gambling. They say “gambling and ethics are not a proper video game theme.” Methinks it’s because I’m the only guy in the office.