The president of the Corinthians soccer team, Andres Sanchez announced on Wednesday that he has all the intention of keeping Ronaldo on board with the team throughout the end of his career.

Ronaldo's current contract is good through the end of 2009. However, Sanchez claims that the team has all the right conditions to offer Ronaldo a comfortable deal to stay with Corinthians until the end of his career.

"He will end his career with Corinthians. I am sure that Ronaldo will stay with us and renew his contract. Ronaldo is the focus of our innovating program. The department of marketing at Corinthians was sleeping. The player really is the savior and answer to all of our problems. Within one month, we have sold some more than three million Ronaldo jerseys," said the team president.

Apart from extending Ronaldo's contract, Sanchez hopes that the fame of the player will stimulate sales and help increase the popularity of the team. He hopes that the athlete's name will help the team to enter into new markets throughout the globe.

"In 2009, with Ronaldo on our team we plan to sell some six million jerseys. We are going to explore new markets, such as China, Asia and the Arab world. Those markets mentioned are the largest consumers of soccer merchandise in the world. With Ronaldo on our team, everything will be much easier," added Sanchez.

While Ronaldo is at Corinthians, the team has ambitious projects of renovation. Sao Jorge Park is currently used only as a training facility for the team. Sanchez foresees the construction of a mega complex that will replace the current facility to better host the professional team as well as the farm teams of the club. The new complex would also have the adequate infrastructure to host home soccer games of the club.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2009)