Brazil recall for Ronaldo against Croatia
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-02 09:39

Ronaldo has been recalled by Brazil for their away friendly against Croatia after being left out of the World Cup qualifiers and Confederations Cup in the last two months, Reuters reported.

Fellow striker Robinho, who played his first match for Santos on Sunday after finally completing a $30 million move to Real Madrid, was also included for the match in Split on August 17.

However, Ronaldinho was left out as he is suspended for Brazil's following World Cup qualifier at home to Chile on September 4, for which the Croatia match is being used as a warm-up.

Central defender Roque Junior was omitted from the squad for the same reason.

Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said he was keeping the base of the team which won the Confederations Cup in Germany last June, beating Argentina 4-1 in the final.

The main difference was the return of Ronaldo, who was left out of the Confederations Cup at his own request but also missed out on the preceding World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Argentina in which he had expected to play.

"I hope to see a motivated Ronaldo, in form and ready for the World Cup," Parreira told reporters. "He's been training hard and we hear that he is much thinner."

Parreira said he had intended to leave out Robinho, who refused to play for Santos after the Confederations Cup unless they agreed to sell him to Real.

Real finally agreed to pay the Brazilian champions $30 million for the 21-year-old on Saturday and Robinho, who will stay at Santos until the end of the month, returned to the side for Sunday's 4-2 win over Corinthians.

"He hadn't been playing so he wouldn't have been picked," said Parreira. "But by the time we face Croatia, he will have played three of four games and I expect him to be able to play at least a half."

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