It could, and should, have been an "and they all lived happily ever after" story.

But the final-straw phrase wasn't just for fun.

With the league race down to a two-point gap, Barcelona had to kiss goodbye to their star striker.

For months, the club had been arguing with FIFA that the Tournoi de France (a forerunner of the Confederations Cup, which is now used to test the readiness of the following summer’s World Cup host) wasn’t officially on the calendar and therefore Brazil couldn’t demand Ronaldo when there were still Liga matches and a Copa final to play.

FIFA, in their eternal wisdom, ruled otherwise.

So while Barcelona were losing at Hercules and definitively waving a tearful goodbye to the title, Ronaldo was in Lyon with the Selecao preparing to face France in what was, effectively, a spruced-up friendly. An injustice.

Barcelona’s board were enraged—the already teetering negotiations that had resulted in a verbal agreement but were patched together with gaffer tape and blue tack disintegrated.

"This was a super-talented, laid-back, loveable guy who won all our respect that season—but was in a class of his own."

Slavisa Jokanovic on Ronaldo.

Robson claimed it was over the fees Ronaldo’s people demanded for the renegotiation.

The player's entourage stated that a deal they had taken as “final” was torn up the following day by president Nunez.

What remains is that Ronaldo was infuriated—his "amor" for the city and the club set aside out of a burning desire to be paid more, and to demonstrate blind loyalty to his representatives.

By the penultimate week of the season, with Madrid already champions, Ronaldo was gone—in Colombia straight from the Tournoi de France. He scored twice in a 5-0 victory over Costa Rica as Brazil began what was their stroll to a Copa America victory in which they crushed their opposition.

That South American championship, rather than Spain’s Copa del Rey, became Ronaldo’s third trophy of the season.

In his absence, Barcelona won an epic final against Real Betis in the Santiago Bernabeu—the night famous for Barca vice president Gaspart insisting (as a member of the Spanish FA) that the Barca anthem (“Himno,” it’s called there) be played over and over again at Madrid’s HQ in celebration of the cup winners after a five-goal extra-time thriller.

I was there and can testify to a genuine, firm anti-Ronaldo feeling among fans and press.

What for?

For not rejecting the Tournoi de France and not telling the Brazil coach where to go so that he could have played at Hercules.

One might argue Ronaldo is more than entitled to suggest his club should have been able to win that one without him and that his compensation, not small, was being chosen as a starting striker for Brazil at age 20 and ensuring they won only their second Copa America in 48 years.

That Copa del Rey weekend, I spent a long time speaking to Robson. He’d known for weeks that win, lose or draw the league, he was going to be replaced by Van Gaal. He was wounded, planning revenge but happy with what he and Ronaldo had brought to the Camp Nou.

The double-dealing and dark times of the previous summer included not only the fact that Barcelona had lied to Robson and pretended he was their first choice, but also that Van Gaal had known all season he was the guaranteed successor.

Ronaldo’s people, too, appeared to have known all along that Inter were more than willing suitors and that unless Barcelona accepted being taken hostage over the Ronaldo contract situation, Inter president Massimo Moratti was going to get another toy for his set.

But that’s the inglorious past now. Set it aside.

What we are left with is that for all his affection for Real Madrid and antipathy for Barcelona, this still might well have been, pound for pound, Ronaldo’s greatest club season.

To Oscar Garcia for the final word:

"I’ve worked around Barcelona while Leo Messi’s been there and at his best. I’ve never seen anything like [Ronaldo]. For all that we saw in matches from Ronaldo when he was at the Camp Nou, we all witnessed him do simply astounding things with the ball in training.

"Just remarkable stuff. The pressure was off, and Ronnie had the ability to do anything. Nobody could stop him in training.

"And if you took just that single year at Barcelona, you’d have said that he was guaranteed to go on and be at least one of the top four or five players in the history of the game. That’s because his nickname was accurate. It was an epic season, and he was a football phenomenon."

Amen to that.