Brazilian Ronaldo headed to London
Former Brazil footballer Ronaldo is heading to London to continue his commercial links with WPP, one of the world's largest advertising groups, it was confirmed Tuesday.
For the past two years Ronaldo has been running a Brazilian sports marketing agency 9ine, which has worked with WPP and he has also helped the group with their plans for the next football World Cup and Olympic Games, both of which will take place in Brazil in 2014 and 2016 respectively.
When contacted by AFP in London, WPP were guarded about Brazilian press reports that Ronaldo would be 'mentored' by WPP chief executive Martin Sorrell while in Britain.
But in a statement, Sorrell said: "We have a joint venture with Ronaldo - 9ine -- which has already had great success in Brazil with clients Claro (a wireless communications company) and Duracell (batteries).
"He'll be working with us on that in the UK. We've also been working with him on the World Cup and Olympics."
Ronaldo, 36, scored both goals when Brazil beat Germany 2-0 to win the 2002 World Cup final in Yokohama, Japan and, after spells with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Inter Milan retired from football in 2011.
WPP owns the Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy advertising agencies among others, as well as communications agency RLM Finsbury and market research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
In October, the London-listed company said its revenues rose 1.6 percent to £2.49 billion ($4.03 billion, 3.09 billion euros) in the third quarter, compared with the same part of 2011.
