This is a tale of two strikers, one famous and the other rather less so. One of them is the leading goalscorer in Italy's Serie A and not a lot of attention is paid to him. The other has scored just one goal in the same league over two years and, despite that, he moves armies of television cameras and fills acres of newsprint (this column included).
We are, of course, referring to Inter Milan's Brazilian Ronaldo and Piacenza striker Dario Hubner. Dario Who? Yes, on the weekend that marked Ronaldo's first league goal in over two years when he opened the scoring in Inter Milan's 3-1 away win against Brescia, the player who actually tops the goalscorers' chart is 34-year-old Hubner.
Ronaldo and Hubner come from two different footballing worlds. The former is a modern, soccer-biz myth, propelled to international stardom and then almost pushed over the edge of physical endurance both by his native footballing skills and by a combination of multinational marketing and media hype.
The other is a soccer journeyman, happy to earn his footballing crust by playing for most of his career in Italy's second and third divisions.
Ronaldo - be he in convalesence as during the last three and a half years since the France '98 World Cup finals or back in full-time professional action as of now - is a player for whom minders, personal trainers, physiotherapists and coaches work out almost every detail of his life from training sessions through to gym workouts and the menu for every meal.
Hubner, on the other hand, trains regularily but does not disdain the odd cigarette, the good glass of wine or the well-furnished dinner table.
The world knows the story of Ronaldo Luiz Nazario Lima, the poor-boy-made-good from the Madureira barrio in Rio di Janeiro. Not so many would know that Hubner is a former apprentice window-fitter from the pretty little village of Muggia, close to the old port of Trieste on the Adriatic.
What is common to both men, of course, is a talent for goalscoring, a skill both revealed last weekend. Ronaldo, playing from the start of a Serie A game for the first time since he returned this autumn, opened the scoring for Inter with a neatly-taken goal that was the fruit of a well-worked one-two with attack partner, Christian Vieri. That was his first goal in Serie A since he scored in Inter's 6-0 defeat of Lecce back in November 1999.
Hubner, playing in a fog-bound clash with Bologna, scored two brilliant goals that took his seasonal tally to 12. Since August 1999, he has scored no less than 50 first- and second-division goals.
Whilst Ronaldo's class and Brazilian origins made him an eminently marketable, million-dollar, promotional vehicle, sought after by such as Nike and Pirelli, not too many people went looking for Hubner.
At one stage during Hubner's good run last season, Brescia coach Carlo Mazzone was asked just why Hubner had only hit the top after the age of 30 and why no big-name club had ever moved for him. "Dario's never had an agent," he answered.
Some have suggested Hubner should be called into the Italian team for the World Cup finals, but he is keeping his feet on the ground: "I don't even think about being called up for Italy. There is a God in my soccer. I cross myself before walking out onto the pitch so that God may protect me. To be helped by Someone Up There is important."
Now that's a sentiment with which Ronaldo would doubtless agree.
pagnew@aconet.it
