COPY CAT COPY CAT

Last updated : 31 March 2005 By editor

Ronaldo in the Mirror:

"There is one thing that annoys me. I don't like people copying my tricks. I would never, for example, copy Ronaldinho if I saw him doing something on the pitch. I see football as an art and all the players are artists. If you are a top artist the last thing you would do is paint a picture that someone has already painted.

"I would never dream of looking at Ronaldinho and trying to emulate him. I would be offended if he tried to copy one of my tricks. Different tricks come naturally to gifted players and we must concentrate on developing our own natural talents rather than try and be someone else.

"It's all down to street football. We'd eat, drink and breathe football. I always felt comfortable on the ball and have always had the belief that if you put one man or five men in front of me I could go past them all.

"In Madeira we had plenty of pitches and I used to play football in every spare second with lots of children my age. I used to invent new tricks that I could try in my next game and I still do the same thing today."