Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos buy Brazilian football club

Inter de Limeira, a small club from São Paulo state’s interior, has entered a new chapter with two of Brazil’s most famous footballers among its new owners. The club announced that an investment group including Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos had bought 80% of its shares.

The transaction was approved on Monday at an extraordinary general meeting after negotiations that began in December. The club did not disclose the price. Founded in 1913, Internacional de Limeira currently plays in Brazil’s third division and sits fifth in the competition.

The club’s leadership celebrated the sale as “the beginning of a new phase in the history” of Inter de Limeira. Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos played for Brazil at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, the last of the national team’s five world titles.

Another new partner is Enrico Ambrogini, who served as Cruzeiro’s operations director while Ronaldo held a controlling stake in the club from 2021 to 2024. During Ronaldo’s ownership, Cruzeiro underwent a major financial restructuring to avoid bankruptcy and returned to Brazil’s top division. In Spain, Ronaldo owned Real Valladolid from 2018 to 2025, a period marked instead by ups and downs.

Roberto Carlos said in July that he wanted to buy Inter de Limeira to develop new talent capable of reaching the Brazil team. The plan comes as Brazilian football debates its player-development system after repeated failures at the World Cup. Flamengo and Palmeiras have dominated the Copa Libertadores in recent years, while Brazil remains the world’s largest exporter of football talent to Europe.

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the beginning of a new phase in the history