Ronaldo set to appear at Chinese league opener

Posted Tuesday, March 22, 2011 by chinadaily.com

Ronaldo set to appear at Chinese league opener
Brazil's Ronaldo in this June 8, 2002 file photo.

Brazilian football star Ronaldo Luis Nazario will not attend this season's CSL opening ceremony in Guangzhou, Tuesday's local newspaper New Express reports.

Ronaldo's trip to China was finally rejected by the Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club due to his high appearance fees, an insider was quoted as saying.

Recently-retired Brazilian football star Ronaldo Luis Nazario looks set to attend the opening ceremony of this year's Chinese Super League (CSL) in Guangzhou, according to a local football newspaper.

The Guangzhou Evergrande Football Club, host of the 2011 CSL is planning an unparalleled splendid opening gala with the grandest stars including a line-up of Brazil's former football star Ronaldo, mainland entertainers Fan Bingbing, Han Hong and Sun Nan and Hong Kong singer Charlene Choi of the Twins Band, and Taiwan singer David Tao, according to the newspaper.

The CSL has allocated 100,000-yuan ($15,231) expenditure for the opening ceremony, but the wealthy host Evergrande has submitted an expenditure budget of 10 million yuan ($1.52 million) for the extravaganza.

About 50,000 spectators will attend the gala slated for the evening of April 2 at the Tianhe Sports Center in Guangzhou.

The Evergrande team, who won last year's second-tier title to return to the top-flight league, will play against Dalian Shide for the opening match.

Insiders say Ronaldo has quite a big chance of coming to China after the Evergrande Group began direct talks with the Brazilian star.

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