The Rise & Fall of Ronaldinho

[Music] in december 2005 ronaldinho won the ballon d'or and was crowned the best player in the world rightly he was the game's best player he was also its most entertaining and he was loved and at just 25 years old ronaldinho had years left ahead of him or he should have done because little did anyone know that his career had already reached its apex [Music] ronaldo diazis moreira was born in the suburbs of porto alegre his older brother asis was a natural role model and an attacking midfielder who would play professionally in france and portugal as well as for brazilian age group teams and the hometown club gremio and it was at gremio the club that he grew up supporting that ronaldinho's own career really started he first showed his abilities on the club's futsal courts as a seven-year-old and would spend the next 14 years wearing their blue black and white tri-color the earliest footage of ronaldinho who counted rivolino one of the great technical showmen in brazilian football history is one of his heroes shows that he seems always to have played with the flair and joy that would later become his trademark as a teenager he would bewitch dongga during the rio state championship final of 1999 bewildering the world cup winning captain of 1994 with first an impromised flick flack and second a soon-to-be typical juggle it was astonishing self-confidence it also brought ronaldinho to proper national attention and he would win his first caps for brazil in the same year being selected as part of the 1999 squad that won the copper america a move to europe was inevitable and in 2001 it arrived with ronaldinho joining psg he would settle in france quickly albeit with a developing trend starting to grow his best performances came in the biggest games but when the lights weren't as bright his concentration could waver and his form would fluctuate he would play just 77 games in two seasons but some of ronaldinho's goals were of the highest quality fabulous free-kicks against lorient and ren a 70-yard run and finish versus troy and a shimmying dance and ship against gangl but it was also a period of foreshadowing controversy between his two seasons in france ronaldinho won the 2002 world cup with brazil scoring a very famous goal against england in the process by the time he returned according to john carlin writing in the guardian in 2003 he was behaving as if psg were beneath him ronaldinho's relationship with coach luis fernandez deteriorated during that final season and stories about his nightlife became more common even before christmas coach and player had reached breaking point with ronaldinho declaring that he would leave the club if fernandez was not sacked after an argument about his playing position the psg board were not for moving fernandez stayed but ronaldinho arrived late back from the winter break and amid much muttering from anonymous dressing room sources his departure became inevitable and of course he would join barcelona the club was under the new presidency of joanne leporte and the coaching of frank reigard but it was still reeling from two separate but equally turbulent spells under louis van gaal and less than successful transfer policy and yet rarely if ever has a debut goal described a new signings ability quite so vividly against sevilla at camp now in his first competitive home appearance and in a game which kicked off after midnight ronaldinho carried the ball forward drifting in field from the left and passed two severe defenders before rifling a shot into the net off the underside of the crossbar it might have been the best goal of his career whatever the truth it was greeted by an almost unholy noise and proved the high point of a turbulent season which saw basa finish second but at one point drop as low as 12th in the summer of 2004 momentum started to gather deco samueletto and ludovic julie was signed while raphael marquez arrived too victor valdez and andres iniesta were promoted from lamazia and a young lionel messi would also debut ronaldinho's perfect conditions were in place for the next three years and what would prove to be the imperial stage of his career 2004-5 would be a triumph barcelona would win la liga for the first time in the new millennium ronaldinho would finish off a comprehensive three-nil win in the first classico of the season and barcelona would lead the competition uninterrupted for almost the entire year they'd be derailed controversially in the champions league losing to a questionable john terry goal against chelsea but not before ronaldinho scored one of the best and most unique goals in the competition's history toe-poking past petr cech from the edge of the box back in the group stage he'd also won barcelona's game against ac milan with a goal of comparable standard driving across the box before lashing into the top corner in the 89th minute it was an instant classic the definitive ronaldinho goal followed by an iconic celebration he even created the first goal of leo messi's career that year with a through ball that was lobbed delicately home in celebration messi leapt onto ronaldinho's back to take the applause creating one of the images of the era and being a whole new chapter of the club's history but first the brazilian's thrilling combination of technique and class would light up 2005-6 as barcelona defended their league title and captured the european cup for the first time since 1992. he left his signature on that first clasico of the season at the santiago bernabeu with two goals of the highest quality probably his most famous in the barcelona shirt the first a run from the halfway line and beyond a succession of helpless madrid defenders the second a wicked slalom through the box which similarly flummoxed the home defense at full time just to describe how rare the air he was inhabiting had become he was given a standing ovation by the bernabeu but the spanish super cup aside he would never win anything again at barcelona that reflected two issues the first was that rygard's control over the dressing room weakened as his cycle wore on and its tension loosened the second was that ronaldinho was just as fond of the catalonian nightlife as he had been of the parisian party scene one charming rumor which was never substantiated claimed that he would regularly play with a band of brazilian musicians in barcelona disguising himself behind a mask to protect his identity barcelona finished trophy-less in 2006-7 and by the time 2007-8 began the club was in a strange place the previous season samueletto claimed that ronaldinho attended only eight of every 50 training sessions and the next year began with the introduction of a new disciplinary rule book by president laporta believed to be aimed at a cabal of players including ronaldinho by the turn of the year with criticism of the player in johan cruyff's newspaper columns also becoming increasingly common barcelona's desire to be rid of their former talisman became public and his departure was something that ultimately new manager pep guardiola would demand tragically when ronaldinho left for ac milan in the summer of 2008 it was with a damaged reputation that of a part-time footballer however his time in italy wasn't without success his body shape changed and his fondness for a good time away from the game did not but while he wasn't quite the same live player and milan were by no means as sleek as barcelona had been at their peak his pawnshop for producing goals at important moments remained his first for the club was a header in the milan derby but among his 26 in two and a half years was another header at napoli a double against juventus and a peach of a free-kick against portsmouth in the europa league he left europe for good in 2011 returning to his native brazil to sign for flamengo where he was still good for a performance in july he went toe-to-toe with neymar jr the young prince of brazilian football scoring a hat-trick in a remarkable 5-4 win he spent two years at atletico mineiro by then well into his 30s before a season-long cameo in ligue mx he would return to brazilian football one more time making seven appearances for fluminense but his contract was terminated early ronaldinho didn't actually retire until 2018 he even briefly played futsal in india but when it was announced it brought an outpouring of affection and genuine love for a truly rare player and even in retirement his life has had possibly the expected contrasts after being accused of entering the country on a false passport he spent time in a paraguayan jail and nearly six months under house arrest he's flirted with bankruptcy too but also launched his own brands of wine and gin and yet nothing diminishes the memory of what he was on the pitch watching ronaldinho was fun it made people happy wrote sidlow in the guardian in 2018. those may be two of the most simple childish words of all but they are the right ones [Music] if 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Id: B7zPPImyTxI

Length: 9min 23sec (563 seconds)

Published: Fri May 13 2022