Ronaldinho

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, commonly known as Ronaldinho, is a world class Brazilian international football player currently featuring for the Spanish and European champions FC Barcelona. Ronaldinho is one of the best players of all time and has won the World Cup with Brazil and the UEFA Champions League with Barcelona. He has been awarded the FIFA Player of the Year, European Player of the Year and FIFpro World Player of the Year all twice.

Ronaldinho was born in Porto Alegre, a city in the Rio Grande do Sul region of Brazil. Like most Brazilians, Ronaldinho began to play futsal but then moved into football. His playing career commenced at in the youth team at Porto Alegre club Grêmio, the same club that his elder brother Roberto de Assiss (now his agent) used to play his professional football for.

He made his first senior appearance for Gremio in a Libertadores Cup in 1998 and for the next three years, was arguably the best player at Gremio. He was signed by French giants Paris Saint Germain in the summer of 2001.

It was actually in the 2002 World Cup in Japan and Korea that Ronaldinho escalated into life and that was the competition that transcended him to a demi-God status. Against England in the last 8, he scored with an outlandish free-kick that was argubly the best goal of the competition.

Ronaldinho was signed by Catalan giants FC Barcelona for a staggering 21 million pounds and at Camp Nou, Ronaldinho became the best player in the world. He led Barcelona to the 2004-2005 La Liga title and also led them to the Spanish league conquest next season. Ronaldinho also won the 2006 UEFA Champions League with Barca and was adjudged as the best player in the competition that season.

But a very disappointing World Cup in Germany in the 2006 summer slided him down the table and these days there are talks that Ronaldinho's poor form would never let him reinvent himself. Although people still accept that Ronaldinho remains one of the best footballers of all time, there are one or two winds of apprehension floating around suggesting that Ronaldinho, or Ronnie as he is often affectionately termed, is past it,

There was mounting speculation that Ronaldinho might leave Barcelona in the summmer of 2008 and move to AC Milan in Italy. A speculation which later came true when it was announced that he had signed a three year contract with the Italian powerhouse.

Edit text