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Marseille, 4 December 1997

Magical Ronaldo weaves a spell on Europe’s finest

In 45 magical minutes Brazilian super star Ronaldo took on some of Europe’s finest players and left them chasing shadows as Europe played a Rest of the World team before the 1998 World Cup draw here on Thursday.
By the time French referee Gilles Veissiere blew for half-time Ronaldo had scored twice and set up three others to put the Rest of the World 5-1 up.

In the end the Rest of the World were comfortable 5-2 winners.

Europe took the lead after two minutes through Romania’s Marius Lacatus and for 15 minutes the ‘home’ side, inspired by France’s Zinedine Zidane in midfield, looked to be firmly in control. But it was all an optical illusion.

In the 17th minute Ronaldo slipped an inch perfect ball to Colombia’s Antony De Avila to slot it past German goalkeeper Andreas Koepke. It was the start of an avalanche that even England captain Paul Ince, in the heart of the European defence, was helpless to stop. Ronaldo, switching from the left to right side at will, set up two goals for Argentina’s Gabriel Batistuta as well as scoring twice himself.