Ronaldinho

From ArticleWorld

Ronaldinho , born Ronaldo de Assis Moreira on March 21st 1980 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, is the current Fifa world footballer of the year holder. He adopted the name Ronaldinho, meaning little Ronaldo in his native Portuguese, so as not to clash with other Brazilian footballing legend Ronaldo.

Early Career

Ronaldinho caught the attention of the Brazilian media from a young age, with his penchant for mesmerising trickery and ability to score goals. This was shown in his first major junior tournament when he was the top scorer at the Egypt under-17 international football competition. His first professional club was Brazilian side Gremio, where he soon built a big reputation and some global admirers, particularly in the English Premiership. This interest grew with his introduction to the Brazilian national team in 1999, where on his debut he scored the winning goal against Venezuela. Eventually in 2001 Ronaldinho made a surprise move to French team Paris Saint-Germain. But once again his involvement in the successful Brazilian national teams world cup victory in 2002 bought his talent to the worlds attention. In 2003 he publicly stated his desire to move to another team after PSG failed to qualify for a European competition, setting off a bidding war. Eventually Ronaldinho chose Spanish giants Barcelona over England’s Manchester United, moving for 27 million Euros.

Global Superstar

Since moving to Spain Ronaldinho has grown in stature helping the Catalan club to second place in La Liga in his first season 2003/2004. In 2004 he was awarded the Fifa world player of the year award, his personal achievement helped guide his team, Barcelona to there first league title in many years. In the same year he helped guide Brazil to their second successive Confederations cup success, with his personal performances getting rave reviews. Football legend Pele proclaimed that ‘Ronaldinho is the best player in the world right now’, high praise indeed from a man who many consider to be the greatest footballer of all time. 2005 saw Ronaldinho go from strength to strength picking up the European and World Player of the year awards. Ronaldinho has gained many plaudits and admirers playing in the successful Barcelona and Brazilian squads, many clubs covet his signature but few could possibly hope to afford the ever increasing price tag that his reputation has created. His future looks secure in Spain despite many people including Ronaldinho linking him to a move to English big spenders Chelsea, owned by Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich.