Different strokes for different folks

As South America's Europe-based stars flew back home this week for the next double-headers in the qualification campaign for South Africa 2010, one in particular was travelling under something of a cloud. Robinho's had a mixed season off the pitch, in no small part thanks to a recent allegation of rape in a Leeds nightclub.

Now, to top it all, Pelé - the man who said Robinho obviously had problems when the winger signed for Manchester City from Real Madrid - is reported as accusing him of being a drug user.

Of course the whole controversy seems to say more about the way the press hang on Pelé's every word than it does about Robinho's conduct. All the same it's the kind of thing that's unlikely to be forgotten abroad, even if the fuss in Brazil should blow over quickly enough.

That fuss will pass in large part, of course, because Pelé has clarified his own words and Robinho has said, after training with Brazil on Wednesday, that he wants to draw a line under the incident. Pelé's clarification came, of course, after Robinho's official website had demanded a public apology from the legend, "if he hasn't been misinterpreted." Pelé, needless to say, explained that that's exactly what had happened.

Last week during a function in São Paulo, Pelé commented, apparently unaware that he was being recorded, on rumours of drug use amongst footballers. Diego Maradona did it, he reminded the listener (he rarely misses a chance to point that out), but still; "It's wrong to talk of drugs in football solely from one or two cases, like what happened with Ronaldo and Robino, who had that problem."

Unambiguous? No. On Thursday Pelé declared, "I know what it's like when you've got to sell newspapers", and explained he had actually referred to the two stars' other problems - 'problems' which are fairly well-known in the public eye. Following the rape charge mentioned above, Robinho's new agent Chris Nathaniel (who's dealt among others with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand, getting the former a hefty book advance and the latter that TV classic "Rio's World Cup Wind-Ups") is keen to clean up Robinho's image in the hope of landing the sort of sponsorship deals his client's clean-cut Brazil team-mate Kaká has coming out of his ears.

That, according to a friend of mine who works for the Globo network in Brazil, is the likely reason for Robinho reacting as vehemently as he did, ensuring he got the apology whilst also making clear from the start what he, like the rest of us, had guessed - that Pelé, always a careful speaker in public, had his words misinterpreted.

More than Robinho's demands for clarification, though, what's most striking in all this is the contrast with Ronaldo's attitude. O Fenômeno was implicated along with the Manchester City man, remember, but whilst Robinho's website released his impassioned statement the only soundbite available from the big man was a press conference in which he declared that he hopes to end his career with his new club, Corinthians.

This relaxed reaction stems from the fact that Brazilians know what Ronaldo gets up to anyway, and don't really care - the main substance he seems to be abusing at present is cooking fat, after all. There's also a certain degree to which the country's become desensitised to a lot of what Pelé says. O Rei, who along with FIFA President Sepp Blatter is one of two football men whose words are all over the world within hours of their uttering anything even remotely printable, provides journalists in Brazil with so much copy that the public barely pay attention any more. Ronaldo, who only has to worry about the domestic public these days, seems happy to just let the matter lie - Robinho's demands for clarification are aimed more at the rest of the world than at his homeland.

Another possible reason Ronaldo didn't demand clarification is that he'd rather not have Pelé remind everyone exactly which "problem" he was referring to. Some readers may already be aware but for those who aren't, or who've forgotten, Ronaldo was involved in a rather unsavoury (if, admittedly, highly amusing) situation last April in Rio de Janeiro.

Enjoying a night on the town, Ronaldo ended up driving from a nightclub to a hotel with three ladies, where they checked into a room. Upon closer inspection, though, they turned out not to be ladies at all. After refusing an offer to give them a tidy sum of cash in return for their silence, "Ronie" drove them straight to the police station and came clean. For all his honesty after the event, his girlfriend wasn't best pleased.

He's been at it again recently, breaking a curfew after a team get-together at the house of a Corinthians director last month to visit a brothel, and returning at 5:30am. Later that week, mind you, he scored his first goal for the club to level the Paulista championship tie with Palmeiras in stoppage time, so it wasn't an entirely bad few days for him.

Thanks to his place in the national squad, Robinho is (just) more visible, at present, than Ronaldo. This latest spat isn't ideal coming from Pelé, who once played a major part in Robinho's upbringing at former club Santos, especially after Pelé questioned Robinho's mental toughness on the latter's signing for Manchester City. It's up to Robinho to knuckle down now and concentrate on the matches coming up.

In the short term at least, one comment from Pelé may give us a chance to discover whether the one he made a few months ago is truly accurate. And Ronaldo? He'll probably be happy to be out of the spotlight for a few days.