Analysis: I'm absolutely delighted that Brazil have won the World Cup. It's a great result for football - they've been the best team, won every game, scored the most goals and every time they came out to play you just didn't want the game to end.

As for the Ronaldo story? It's just Boys' Own stuff.

Germany looked the better team early on yesterday and you could see why they'd got to the final, but the thing with the Brazilians is that they will always, always create chances.

You look at Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Rivaldo in games sometimes and you think 'they're a bit quiet today' - and then they come up with something that changes everything.

Rivaldo probably had his quietest game of the whole tournament and yet it was his shot that led to Oliver Kahn's fumble, which led to the first goal.

They just have a fantastic attitude. Even yesterday, in the first half, most of their routes to goal were barred, but they still managed to conjure up three or four really good chances, having been very ordinary.

While, admittedly, it's always difficult to feel sorry for German footballers, I felt for their goalkeeper, he didn't deserve that, he had been outstanding all through the tournament - of all games to make a mistake.

Brazil have been maligned all the way through because of their defensive 'capabilities', but the problem for them is that they regard defending as a pain in the ass - they couldn't be bothered with that side of the game, they all want to pile forward and play.

Brilliant! The Ronaldo story is fantastic. I was at the final four years ago when it was a Brazilian non-performance and Ronaldo was just wandering around like a little boy lost, so to go through what he's been through - all those injuries and, even now, he's only about 80 per cent fit - just shows you what ability he has.

I'd pick him as my player of the tournament. It's a very obvious choice, I know, but it is an absolutely wonderful story.

From the slums of Rio de Janeiro, got to the top, got to France '98, was supposed to take it by storm, we know what happened, then knock after knock after knock, at one stage he wasn't going to play again - so to come back like he did? Fairytale stuff.

If you look at teams in this World Cup like Spain and Italy, both of whom had really talented players, you have to wonder why on earth they adopted the attitude of 'get one up and sit back'?

The Brazilian attitude was 'just get a second goal' once they took the lead. The nicest thing about it all is that the best attacking team with the most positive attitude has won the World Cup, and I'm thrilled about that.

I would like to think that the lesson from this World Cup is that positive football pays off. I think, when we look back at 2002, we'll see that that approach was, generally, rewarded.

This World Cup will have made the likes of Portugal, Spain, Italy and England think, they were all too negative and, ultimately, paid for it.

When everybody sits back and looks at exactly what went right and what went wrong for them they might reflect on the fact that the positive, attacking teams won out - who knows, we might even get the Italians to change.

My overall view of the tournament? There have been some outstanding games and there have been some very ordinary games, but I would say there has only really been one world class team: Brazil.

A disappointing aspect was that some teams adopted a negative approach - and, generally, it was the European teams.

The reason South Korea, USA and Japan, for example, did so well is because they just kept going forward and attacking.

Ireland? I don't think you can praise the players highly enough, or the manager. Worst possible preparation, yet when the games came they were very, very good.

They took the game to the opposition every time, never lumped it, played great football.

We praise Guus Hiddink, the way he made successful changes in matches, but Mick McCarthy did it too, grasped the nettle every time, decided to go for it. Great tournament.

Team of the tournament apart from Brazil? Has to be South Korea.

Yes, they had six months to prepare, and, yes, they were playing at home and the crowd was fantastic, but the nicest thing for me about them was they never moaned, never complained, never waved imaginary yellow cards in the air trying to get opponents booked, they just got on with it and played great football.

Fantastic. No cynicism.

But the best memory of all? Ronaldo's 'redemption'. A wonderful, wonderful story.

In interview with Mary Hannigan