WORLD CUP 2002/Brazil's homecoming: Euphoria broke out in Brazil's capital yesterday as hundreds of thousands of ecstatic fans screamed and danced for the national soccer side returning home with the World Cup for a record fifth time.
Four fighter jets escorted the Boeing into Brasilia's cloudless skies, and then looped about painting "Penta" - Portuguese for "Fifth" - with smoke trails while the team's trucks crawled through the crowds to the presidential palace.
"It's like your child coming home," shrieked Doris Xavier (37) as she jumped up and down on the roof of her car, stuck in traffic as Brasilia came to a standstill for hours.
The team's captain Cafu, coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, known as "Felipao" or "Big Phil," and star striker Ronaldo took turns to raise the World Cup trophy as another player, Ronaldinho Gaucho, endlessly beat out Afro-Brazilian rhythms on drums.
I always believed in you and I knew it, proclaimed banners that paid tribute to the team that was ripped apart by the national press ahead of the championship and virtually written off after struggling to qualify.
Instead, they returned to the jubilant South American nation as World Cup record breakers. Brazil are the only country in the world to win the World Cup five times and they also became the first side since its own 1970 squad to win all of its World Cup finals matches.
Felipao for President! read one banner, in a playful reference to Brazil's presidential elections in October.
Chaos reigned at Brazil's Air Force base yesterday morning as hundreds of policemen tried to get the players on top of the trucks before racing fans caught up with them.
"I think this is the best party I've seen, not only in Brazil but worldwide," said Joao Lourenco Ribeiro, a civil servant. "It's above social and political problems."
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso hugged each player as they arrived at the presidential palace.
The national soccer squad caused a scandal after their 1994 World Cup win when they came back loaded with goods above the legal limit, but paid no duties. Federal revenue officials said this time round the checks would be vigorous.
Brazil's hero Ronaldo won't be given a bumper new contract by his Italian side Inter Milan, the club revealed yesterday.
Press reports in Italy had suggested this year's Golden Boot winner would have his current four-year contract extended by a year to 2007, with a wage-hike to €11 million a year.
"Inter haven't received any request on the part of Ronaldo in this case," the club said yesterday.
Ronaldo's partner up front for Brazil, Rivaldo, has been handed a €1.8 million bill for image rights from the Spanish tax authorities, Spanish newspaper El Pais claimed yesterday.
The Barcelona midfielder, under investigation since the start of 2001, has been told to handover the hefty sum of money he earned between 1997 and 1999 from Barcelona and Catalan TV.
According to El Pais, a law was passed in 1997 which states: "A player can deduct a maximum of 15 per cent of his total image rights, the rest is considered like a salary."
Rivaldo is disputing the tax bill and now has two weeks to present his case to the authorities.
