's shock move to last summer didn't portray Barcelona's directors in a great light. Just as he gives defenders the slip, in the blink of an eye he was gone. But Neymar's exit wasn't the first time Barca let a Brazilian sensation slip out of their hands.
In the 1996-97 season Ronaldo Luis Nazario de Lima scored 47 goals in 51 games with the Catalan giants, many of them unbelievable solo efforts, in the pre- and Ronaldo age where one goal every two games was considered the height of what a striker could achieve. Aged 20, he led Barcelona to the Copa del Rey and European Cup Winners' Cup. At times he resembled Superman among clumsy mortals.
Ronaldo and Barcelona appeared to be the perfect union. But in northern one man had fallen in love with the devastating forward. Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti dreamed of seeing that toothy smile beaming in blue and black stripes. For one glorious season his dreams came true.
Moratti had been following Ronaldo since he was terrorising Eredivisie defences with PSV Eindhoven. As planning for the 1997-98 season commenced, he sought a big-name striker. His advisors suggested Gabriel Batistuta, but Moratti wanted 'Ronie'. It seemed like a madman's fantasy. Barcelona intended to build their team around their new superstar.
But Moratti knew trouble was brewing in Catalonia. Barcelona made financial promises to Ronaldo during negotiations for a new contract in early spring 1997. However, when they presented him with the documents to sign a few months later, not all of those pre-agreed details were in the deal.
The player felt betrayed and decided to leave. The Catalans placed a big buy-out clause on their No 9, equivalent to around £21million, and didn't expect anyone to pay it. The world-record transfer fee at that time was the £15m Newcastle paid Blackburn for Alan Shearer after Euro 96, which overtook the £13.2m Barca handed PSV for Ronaldo himself in the same year.
But Moratti swooped. It was a sad and avoidable end to the striker's first spell in Spain.
All of Italy was excited to welcome the man known as O Fenomeno - the Phenomenon. He had shone with every team he'd represented, and dominated the 1997 Copa America with Brazil. It was a coup for Serie A, although there was curiosity to see if he could mesmerise Italian defences the way he did in La Liga.
He more than lived up to the hype. Wearing the No 10 shirt, he displayed his remarkable blend of pace, power and skill. When he wasn't scoring, he also had the vision to create goals for team-mates, and the fact he was often double or triple-marked opened space for his companions, particularly Youri Djorkaeff.
Serie A defenders couldn't handle him. Not even Inter players escaped. Enzo Palladini, former Corriere dello Sport reporter and author of acclaimed Ronaldo biography 'Paura Del Buio' (Fear of the Dark) reveals 'occasionally in training Inter coach Luigi Simoni pitted three or four defenders against Ronaldo. They couldn't get the ball from him. Sometimes he was only allowed to move backwards, yet they still couldn't take the ball off him.'
Supremely talented and fun-loving: that was Ronaldo in a nutshell. During matches it was down to business, naturally, but the rest of the time he just wanted to enjoy himself. His care-free demeanour was almost as much of a trademark as his step-overs.
His love for a good party led to an amusing incident with the Ballon d'Or in January 1998. Ronaldo was presented with the prize on the pitch before the home match with Juventus. Inter won the game 1-0 thanks to a Djorkaeff goal from a perfect Ronaldo pass.
The Brazilian rushed off straight afterwards, without giving any interviews, because he had an event with Brazilian friends. In his haste he left the 12kg Golden Ball (worth an estimated £11,000) in the dressing room.
Ex-Inter press chief Sandro Sabatini recalls: 'I received a call from Ronie saying he'd forgotten his Ballon d'Or. I went to the changing room to collect it. The kit staff had put it into the big bag with all the dirty shirts, shorts and socks. We fished it out.
'The next day I took it to Inter HQ so the staff could have their photos taken with it. Then I drove it to our training centre, where Ronaldo picked it up. It went into his lounge at home. He was so proud, it was his first Ballon d'Or. To him it was as beautiful as the Mona Lisa.'
Ronaldo scored 25 goals in 32 league matches, but they weren't enough to land the title. Despite Inter's cosmopolitan, all-star squad (including the likes of Javier Zanetti, Diego Simeone, Ivan Zamorano, Taribo West and Aron Winter), Juventus only lost twice and won the Scudetto by five points. The second clash between the sides, four matches before the end of the season, was controversial and the Brazilian was at the centre of the acrimony.
The Nerazzurri went into the game in Turin one point behind Juve. With the score 0-0 after 70 minutes, rugged Juventus defender Mark Iuliano barged Ronaldo over in the box but referee Piero Ceccarini waved play on. Juve eventually won the match 1-0. The Iuliano-Ronaldo incident lived on, sparking an argument in parliament days later. That no-penalty decision is still debated now.
Domestic disappointment didn't ruin the 1997-98 season for Inter, however. In Europe, their Brazilian hitman was unstoppable and delivered two masterpieces in the UEFA Cup.
The first was an unforgettable solo goal in a snowy Russia. In the semi-final, second leg away to Spartak Moscow, on a terrible pitch which had more mud and sand than grass, Ronaldo received the ball from a throw-in and after a one-two, beat the home defence and rounded the keeper at ridiculous speed.
That pearl won the game 2-1, and was a nine-second demonstration of his brilliance. There was more to come. His goal in the UEFA Cup final in Paris against Lazio showcased his classic step-over technique. Sprinting towards goal, Ronaldo's shimmy bamboozled goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani. All that remained was to stroke the ball into the unguarded net.
The supersonic striker tortured Lazio that night. He made Alessandro Nesta's life a nightmare. Winning the UEFA Cup, exactly a year after leading Barcelona to the Cup Winners' Cup, gave the season a positive finish.
French midfielder Benoit Cauet joined Inter at the same time as Ronaldo. 'It was fantastic to play with him because he was the best in the world,' says Cauet. 'But he was also humble. He loved being with his team-mates, loved joking around.
'He had grown up with pressure - don't forget he was in the 1994 World Cup squad as a teenager. Perhaps you could say he didn't live the life of a perfect athlete, but you have to put yourself in his situation, being so young and living in a city like Milan. We never begrudged his approach or lifestyle because he was such a nice guy. It's impossible not to love Ronaldo.'
As for that night in Moscow in the 1998 UEFA Cup semi-final, Cauet says: 'The match should have been called off after three minutes. The pitch was appalling. We were all sinking in the mud. Not Ronie though, he was from another world.'
The next campaign he switched to the No 9 shirt at Inter and the marketing machine went into overdrive. The extraordinary was expected every match and the pressure increased. There were still moments of outrageous skill, but there were also serious injuries.
Between August 1999 and May 2002 the Brazilian only played 24 matches due to chronic knee problems. The 2000-01 campaign was a complete write-off. He never hit the heights of his debut season again.
Ronaldo's time at Inter ended in recrimination in the summer of 2002. He couldn't see eye-to-eye with disciplinarian coach Hector Cuper. A stand-off developed and president Moratti backed the tough Argentine trainer over 'R9'.
He joined Real Madrid after leading Brazil to World Cup glory, and anti-Ronaldo feeling was fervent across Italy. Accusations ingratitude were rife.
But, just like in Moscow, the mud didn't stick. With the passing of time all has been forgiven and memories of that first season will live forever. There is only one word: phenomenal.
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