Ronaldo Nazario's son swapped football for a very different career path, he's still made it big

As the son of Ronaldo Nazario, the man dubbed 'O Fenomeno', you'd be forgiven for thinking he'd assumed some of his father's outrageous footballing talents.

'R9' is a two-time Ballon d'Or winner and one of the greatest players ever to play the game. He tore it up for the likes of PSV, Barcelona, Inter Milan and Real Madrid as well as the Brazilian national team, who he won the World Cup with in 2002 and scored 62 times.

His eldest son Ronald, born in Milan in 2000 while his old man was playing for Inter, was on his way to do that after being called up to the Brazil under 18 squad.

He was selected for the Maccabiah games, sometimes referred to as the Jewish Olympics, in Jerusalem back in 2017.

Ronaldo was beaming with joy and on Instagram he wrote: "A special hug for my son Ronald Lima who is in the Under-18 soccer team. Good luck, guys! Go for it, Brazil!'"

Ronald's mother, Milene Domingues, is also a former footballer and not only played 20 times for her country, but broke the women's world record for most keepy-ups (55,187 touches) as a 17-year-old.

Image: Alamy

With such talented parents, Ronald appeared nailed on to follow in their footsteps but it was not the case.

Instead, he became a DJ, simply placing his first name in front of the abbreviation of disc jockey for his title. He's gone to achieve huge success, with 347,000 followers on Instagram and hundreds and thousands of streams on Spotify.

Image: Instagram/@rnldmusic

Specialising in electronic and house music, Ronald experienced a career highlight in 2022 when he hyped up 60,000 fans of Cruzeiro, his father's former club who he has a controlling stake.

The 23-year-old played his tunes before Cruizeiro's Brazilian Serie A promotion clincher against Vasco de Gama as his dad watched on from the stands.

Image: Alamy

Ronald is also a regular in Ibiza, the absolute hub of dance music. And though he's gone down a different path, Ronaldo expressed his pride over his son's work during a live stream with David Beckham in 2020.

"He's an amazing DJ and he's in Brazil," he said on Instagram live.

"It's my fault, I used to play CDs all the time. He grew up seeing me playing lots of music and he became a DJ.

"He's very good, he plays electronic music. In Brazil and everywhere they call him.

"Last year he played in Ibiza for three different clubs."

Topics: Ronaldo Nazario, Brazil, Barcelona, La Liga, Real Madrid

Josh Lawless

Josh is a sports journalist who specialises in football and wrestling. He has been published by Curzon Ashton FC, Late Tackle, Manchester City FC, The Mirror, Read Man City and Manchester Evening News. He provides coverage of professional wrestling and has interviewed some of the biggest names in the field - including the first UK interview with The Hardy Boyz after their return to WWE. He has never sported a pair of Lonsdale Slip-ons, contrary to reports.

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