Ronaldinho
Contents
A world class superstar- Ronaldinho
The Brazilian born footballer Ronaldo de Assis Moreira commonly known as Ronaldinho is among the leading soccer superstars. Over
are past several years, Ronaldinho has remained among the top three most highly
paid football players along with Zinedine Zidane of France and David Beckham of
Britain. The athlete is known by millions of fans throughout the globe for his
trademark crowd pleasing bicycle kicks, curly locks and black headband
Family and Childhood
- Ronaldinho was born into a poor family living in the
Brazilian city of Porto Alegre on the 21st of March in 1980. Ronaldinho
is the youngest child in his family along with a sister and two brothers. The father of Ronaldinho himself played soccer along
with working at a shipyard to earn extra income because at that time soccer
players were not paid adequately. Ronaldinho’s father
Joao died due to a fatal heart attack when Ronaldinho was only 8 years old
(Shoes, 2013). Roberto, the elder brother
of Ronaldinho also showed his skills and talent on the soccer field. The elder brother of Ronaldinho made a
professional contract with a soccer club Gremio because of which the family was
able to move to an affluent area and a better house. However the career of
Roberto (elder brother of Ronaldinho) remained very short due to injuries but Ronaldinho became inspired to follow the footsteps of his brother. Now Roberto is working as a manager of Ronaldinho.
Ronaldinho during his young age showed keen interest in beach soccer. In 2005, Ronaldinho became father of a son after Janaina Mendes who is a
Brazilian dancer gave birth to his son. Ronaldinho named his son after his late
father Joao
Career
At the age of 13, Ronaldinho made his first
major breakthrough by scoring a huge tally of 23 goals against a local
team. Ronaldinho
started his professional carrier in 1998 with a Brazilian football club Gremio.
Ronaldinho was known as Ronaldinho Gaucho during his early days after joining the
Brazilian team. This was because of differentiating between another player in
the team named Ronaldo who was called as Ronaldinho meaning little Ronaldo in
order to distinguish himself from the star player Ronaldo who played as a
striker for the national team. Later on, Ronaldinho Gaucho became recognized as
Ronaldinho after the retirement of the first Ronaldinho from the national team
of Brazil. In 2001, Ronaldinho switched to Paris Saint Germain that is a French
football club. Despite having a number of offers from famous football clubs
like Manchester United and Arsenal, the soccer style played in England and the
complications of work permit restrained Ronaldinho from playing for these
giants and instead the legend kept on playing for relatively smaller soccer
clubs. But Paris Saint Germain club gave him the opportunity to learn from
world class soccer. In 2003, for a huge fee of 30 million Euros Ronaldinho
moved to FC Barcelona. Ronaldinho emerged as a mid-field player while playing
for Barcelona and won the prestigious award of being a top ranked football
player in the world for two consecutive years in 2004 and 2005. In 2006, FC
Barcelona won the champions league by defeating Arsenal due to the
extraordinary performance of Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho also played for the
national team of Brazil. The Brazilian team managed to get a win over the
England team in the World Cup of 2002 due to the outstanding goal of Ronaldinho
on a 40 yard free kick. In 2008, Ronaldinho made a three year contact with Milan
that is considered as a giant of series A; the superstar rejected a Euro 25.5
million offer from Manchester City. Previously, Ronaldinho had been using are
10 number jersey; however after joining Milan, Ronaldinho started to wear an 80
number jersey because the 10 number jersey was already being used by his
co-player Clarence Seedorf. Ronaldinho during his peak years was one of the
richest players in the world and earned around $ 24 million every year. Ronaldinho called the Brazilian footballer
Pele as his role model along with Michael Jordan during his interview given to
the New York Times. In the interview, Ronaldinho said, regarding the basketball
star of are Chicago Bulls, "I watched his games when I was growing up and
loved the way he took on the responsibility for his team,” (Bell, 2007) . In 2012, Ronaldinho started playing for Flamengo on
a three years contract. Flamengo club was able to lift its 19th
title of Taca Guanabara because of the goal of Ronaldinho in the 71st
minute of the final game at the Engenhao stadium. However, differences developed between Ronaldinho and the club due
to which the contract did not last for the complete tenure of three years.
Ronaldinho sued the club for not making payment for several months. In 2012, after four days of leaving the previous
club a surprise move was made by Ronaldinho as he signed a six month contact
with Atletico Mineiro (Reporter, 2012) . In respect of his
mother, Ronaldinho took a 49 number shirt instead of his favorite number 10
because the number 49 represented the birth year of his mother. Due to the exceptional performance of Ronaldinho, Atletico
Minerio club was successful in capturing the second spot in Brasileirao league
and the club also qualified for the Copa Libertadores cup of 2013 which was
ultimately won by the Atletico Minerio for the very first time in the history
of club. In July 2014, Ronaldinho left Atletico Mineiro and
joined a Mexican club Queretaro on a two year contract (Sports S. , 2014) .
Career statistics
Absence
from 2010 and 2014 World Wup
Ronaldinho was not selected for the final squad of
23 in the 2010 World Cup despite being nominated for the initial list of 30 man
squad. Brazil was eliminated from the tournament after facing a defeat in the
quarter final from the Netherlands. The superstar was also dropped from the
final squad of the Confederations Cup in 2013 and the FIFA World Cup in 2014
due to decline in his performance and joining of new younger players (Richards, 2013) .
Style of play
The Brazilian football star is
considered as one of the highly skilled athletes of his times. Ronaldinho has
been described by ESPN as “skillful by nature” due to his unmatched tricks. In
the pressure game situations, Ronaldinho is regarded as one of the coolest
players. Rui Costa, a Portuguese midfielder said about Ronaldinho "There
are not many players who can offer goal scoring passes like he can. He is just
marvelous. He is a rare case of an assist man who can provide the ball from
anywhere." He is also one of the players who has perfected the "Elastico" move (Parrish, 2002) .
Outside football
Ronaldinho has also earned a
lot of money through making appearance in advertisements of different
multinationals including Pepsi and Nike and endorsing different brands like EA sports,
Danone and Gatorade. In 2006, Ronaldinho earned more than $ 19 million through
endorsements. Ronaldinho has appeared in commercials of Pepsi cola along with
Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and David Beckham (Mertz, 2014)
In 2011, Ronaldinho made a contract
with Coca Cola which was terminated within a year as the player was found
drinking Pepsi during a news conference (Sports F. , 2014) .
Ronaldinho also featured in the video
game series of EA sports and appeared on the cover of different versions of the
game (Alagbe, 2014) .
Awards
Ronaldinho has received numerous awards throughout his career including
the prestigious award of being the top ranked FIFA world player (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) in
2004 and 2005. The footballer also received the award of being footballer of
the year in 2006 from Union of European football associations (UEFA) and
recognition award from France Football magazine in 2005 (Guardian,
2014) .
Social work
Ronaldinho collaborated with the United
Nations in 2011 for creating awareness about HIV/AIDS among the younger generation
throughout the world in order to reduce the increasing number of patients of
this disease in the world. Ronaldinho was also invited by the Brazilian
Ministry of Health for endorsing a program designed to create awareness about
AIDS. Ronaldinho after joining the campaign said
“I am delighted to make a small contribution to this important cause by doing
what I do best: playing football.” (Berman, 2011)
Bibliography
Alagbe, J. (2014, September 13). Football legend,
Ronaldinho, moves to Mexico. Retrieved from http://www.punchng.com/feature/rich-and-famous/football-legend-ronaldinho-moves-to-mexico/
Bell, J. (2007, March 26). Ronaldinho Becoming
the Face of Soccer. Retrieved from NEW YORK TIMES:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/26/sports/soccer/26ronaldinho.html?fta=y&_r=0
Berman, A. (2011, October 24). Ronaldinho To
Promote AIDS Awareness Through Sport. Retrieved from
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2011/10/24/ronaldinho-joins-the-united-nations-in-fight-against-aids/
Duthel, H. (2011). FC Barcelona-Barca: Futbol
Club Barcelona. Barca o Blaugrana.
Guardian. (2014, September 6). Ronaldinho signs
two-year deal with Mexico’s Queretaro. Retrieved from
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/06/ronaldinho-signs-queretaro-mexico-not-basingstoke
Mertz, R. (2014, June 23). Did you know that
Ronaldinho blew his deal with Coca Cola when he was caught. Retrieved
from
http://www.tydknow.com/did-you-know-that-ronaldinho-blew-his-deal-with-coca-cola-when-he-was-caught/
Parrish, R. (2002). Steps for the Elastico Soccer
Trick. Retrieved from
http://healthyliving.azcentral.com/steps-elastico-soccer-trick-8081.html
Reporter, S. (2012, June 5). Ronaldinho joins
Atletico Mineiro after leaving Flamengo over wages dispute. Retrieved
from Daily mail UK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2154657/Ronaldinho-joins-Atletico-Mineiro.html
Richards, A. (2013, May 21). Ronaldinho: Why His
World Cup 2014 Dream with Brazil May Be Over. Retrieved from
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1646689-ronaldinho-why-his-world-cup-2014-dream-with-brazil-may-be-over
Shoes, G. (2013, March 13). Ronaldinho de Assis
Moreira. Retrieved from
http://www.goldenshoesmovie.com/ronaldinho-de-assis-moreira/
Sports, F. (2014, May 21). Ronaldinho loses
Coca-Cola sponsorship. Retrieved from http://www.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/latinamerica/story/Ronaldinho-reportedly-sips-from-Pepsi-can-loses-750K-Coca-Cola-deal-071012
Sports, S. (2014, September 6). Transfer news:
Ronaldinho joins Mexican club Queretaro. Retrieved from
http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9458085/ronaldinho-signs-two-year-contract-with-mexican-club-queretaro
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