Ronaldo owns up to mistake

Whenever a superstar of his magnitude implodes -- as he most certainly did in his recent run-in with three transvestites in Rio de Janeiro -- the delight in exposing such personal fallibility extends far beyond the trashy tabloids or talking heads on lowbrow television.

There is almost glee in the media coverage. The titillation factor too comes into play in Ronaldo's calamitous fall from grace. A night out at a bar and disco, the invitation to three prostitutes to accompany him to a nearby motel, the humiliating but sadly belated discovery that they were, in fact, men and not women, all add up to prime tabloid fodder.

Throw in the fact that Ronaldo -- three-time FIFA world player of the year, two-time World Cup winner and United Nations goodwill ambassador -- offered to pay the unsavory trio just to leave and be done with it, and the fact that one of the three allegedly tried to extort more money by threatening to reveal all to the media, and you have all the makings of a steamy Brazilian soap opera.

This is not what Ronaldo had in mind when he returned to Rio to recuperate after knee surgery had prematurely ended his season with AC Milan.

But the injury, combined with the fact that he will turn 32 in September and that the best days of his career are very much behind him, have served to leave Ronaldo more than a little downcast.

His depressed state of mind was made worse, apparently, by an argument with his girlfriend that led him to stomp -- perhaps limp might be a better verb, given the state of his knee -- to a nightclub in search of solace.

Instead, it led to worldwide snickering and ridicule.

To his credit, he is facing up to the fact that this is one stain on his reputation that no amount of scrubbing will remove. It has nothing to do with his soccer abilities but everything to do with his character.

He could win three more World Cups, but there will always be those who will ask, "Wasn't he the guy who . . . ?" But Ronaldo is not the first, and certainly will not be the last, to run afoul of prostitutes. There currently are world-class players on world-class teams whose personal lives are anything but salutary.

On Sunday night, Ronaldo tried valiantly to repair some of the damage and he agreed to an interview with Globo television in Brazil and was candid almost to a fault.