It’s Ronaldinho’s birthday today, and seeing as he’s also one of our all-time heroes we had to choose the big man for our Hero of the Week.
By Adrian Collins
Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, better known as Ronaldinho to you and us, was born on this day in 1980, in Porto Alegre in the south of Brazil. He’s often called Ronaldinho Gaucho, where the “-inho” at the end is an affectionate term for “little”, and Gaucho is a nickname for someone from the south of the country.
When Ronaldinho started playing football, it was his brother who was the famous talent that had Brazilian club Gremio talking, and they moved him and his family to a swanky house. There, Ronaldinho got noticed playing for local youth teams, even once scoring all 23 goals in a game which his team won 23-0.
Ronaldinho started his professional playing career with the same club as his brother, Gremio, and made his debut in 1998. He was recognised almost immediately as a special talent, and big European clubs came knocking quickly.
He moved to Paris Saint-Germain and joined some other pretty famous names, like a young Mikel Arteta and the silky skilled Jay-Jay Okocha. His performances there between 2001-2003 put him on the radar for all of Europe, scoring ridiculous goals and embarrassing defenders all over the shop.
In 2003, he had his eyes set on a big move, and Barcelona president Joan Laporta brought the Brailan to the Camp Nou, where he was streets ahead of anyone else on the planet in terms of ability, and made Barcelona a force to be reckoned with.
Some of his highlights from his time in the Catalan capital include scoring a hat trick against Real Madrid that saw him given a standing ovation in the Santiago Bernabeu, as well as THAT goal against Chelsea. Overall, he was pure magic as he would shoot and score from corners, pull ridiculous tricks that would leave the opposition dumbfounded, and generally destroy teams almost single handedly.
After a few injury plagued seasons, and some off the field controversies, Ronaldinho moved to Milan, and while his career was on a bit of a slide, he did still proved that on his day there was insane ability still in his boots with more of his trademark skills on show against resolute Italian defences, who were left amazed by his tricks.
He moved back to Brazil and joined Flamengo, a giant club in the country, and his most outstanding performance came in one of the best games in recent memory against the Santos of Neymar, where both of them grabbed a rake of goals in an epic 5-4 game.
Perhaps his trademark skill was the elastico or flip flap, where he moves the ball quickly in two directions, catching a defender flat footed and turning him inside out. He would even pull this manoeuvre with the ball in mid-air, a truly amazing feat.
This week, a video also surfaced of him playing football with the son of one of his Atletico Mineiro team mates Alecsandro, which shows his lighter side, and how much he loves the game.
Perhaps the best description of the man comes from former Barcelona team mate Giovanni van Brockhorst, who said “he’s a wizard, he can do things with the ball at his feet that I couldn’t do with the ball in my hands”.
Always playing with a smile on his face, Ronaldinho embodies everything JOE loves about football, he’s unpredictable, he never let his flair or his inventiveness be trained out of him, and he’s constantly creative and different on the field. He is, quite simply, a joy to watch, and we should cherish him while he’s still playing.
Let’s face it you’ll never be as big a hero as Ronaldinho, but you can try and reach those lofty heights. Just head over to lynxpollo.com, get yourself signed up and see if you’ve got what it takes to head into space.
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