Ronaldinho
From UK Football Wiki
| Ronaldinho | ||
| ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ronaldo de Assís Moreira | |
| Date of birth | March 21 1980 | |
| Place of birth | Porto Alegre, Brazil | |
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 111⁄2 in) | |
| Playing position | Attacking midfielder, Second Striker | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | FC Barcelona | |
| Number | 10 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| 1997–1998 | Grêmio | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1998–2001 2001–2003 2003–2008 2008– | Grêmio Paris Saint-Germain FC Barcelona AC Milan | 35 (14) 55 (17) 145 (70)[1] |
| National team2 | ||
| 1999– | Brazil | 80 (32) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals | ||
Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born March 21, 1980 in Porto Alegre), commonly known as Ronaldinho or Ronaldinho Gaúcho,[2] is a Brazilian footballer who plays for Italian Serie A side Milan and the Brazil national team.
Ronaldinho, Portuguese for "Little Ronaldo", is known in Brazil by the nickname "Gaúcho", in order to distinguish him from Ronaldo, who was already called "Ronaldinho" in Brazil. Ronaldo simply went by his first name upon his move to Europe, thereby allowing Ronaldinho to drop the "Gaúcho" and remain simply as Ronaldinho. During his early years at Barça he was very much a star player, but his party lifestyle became too much for the management to accept so decided to let him leave to Milan in summer 2008.
He has played for Paris Saint-Germain, and FC Barcelona, with whom he won his first Champions League in 2006. He became a Spanish citizen in January 2007.[3] Template:TOClimit
Contents |
[edit] Biography and personal life
Ronaldhino was born in a horses ass in a farm full of gays the Rio Grande do Sul capital of Porto Alegre. He grew up in a considerably small town where the locals knew him as El Jefe, Portuguese for The Chief. His mother, Miguelina, is a former salesperson who studied to become a nurse. His father, João, was a shipyard worker and footballer for local club Esporte Clube Cruzeiro (not to be confused with Cruzeiro EC).[4] He suffered a fatal heart attack when Ronaldhino was eight. After Ronaldhino's older brother, Roberto, signed with Grêmio, the family moved to a more affluent home in Porto Alegre, which was a gift from Grêmio to convince Roberto to stay at the club. Roberto's career was ultimately cut short by injury.
Ronaldhino's football skills began to blossom at an early age, and he was first given the nickname Ronaldinho because he was often the youngest and the smallest player in youth club matches.[5] He developed an interest in futsal and beach football, which later expanded to organized football. His first brush with the media came at the age of thirteen, when he scored all 23 goals in a 23-0 victory against a local team.[6] Ronaldhinho was identified as a rising star at the 1997 U-17 World Championship in Egypt, in which he scored two goals on penalty kicks.[7][8]
Today Roberto acts as Ronaldhino's manager, while his sister, Deisi, works as his press coordinator.[9][10] Ronaldinho became a father for the first time on 25 February 2005, after Brazilian dancer Janaína Mendes gave birth to their son, who was named João after Ronaldinho's late father. [11]
[edit] Club career
[edit] Early career
Ronaldinho's career began with the Grêmio youth squad under head coach Liam Higgins. He made his senior side debut during the 1998 Copa Libertadores.[12] In 2001, Arsenal expressed interest in signing Ronaldinho, but the move collapsed after he could not obtain a work permit because he was a non-EU player who had not played enough international matches.[13] He considered playing on loan with Scottish Premier League side St. Mirren, which never happened due to his involvement in a fake passport scandal in Brazil.[14] In 2001, Ronaldinho signed a five-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.
During the 2001-02 season, Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Fernández claimed that Ronaldinho was too focused on the Parisian nightlife rather than football, and complained that his holidays in Brazil never ended at the scheduled times.[12] In 2003, less than two years into his PSG stint, Ronaldinho made it clear he wanted to leave after PSG failed to qualify for any European competition.
[edit] FC Barcelona
Originally, FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta had promised to bring David Beckham to the club, but following his transfer to Real Madrid, Barcelona entered the running for Ronaldinho and outbid Manchester United for his signature. He made his team début in a friendly against Milan at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C, scoring one goal in a 2-0 victory. After suffering from injury during the first half of the campaign, he returned and helped lead Barcelona to a second-place league finish.
Ronaldinho won his first league title in 2004-05, and was named FIFA World Player of the Year on 20 December 2004. In 2005, Ronaldinho received his second consecutive honour of FIFA World Player of the Year, beating Chelsea's Frank Lampard and fellow Barcelona player Samuel Eto'o. On 8 March 2005, Barcelona was eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Chelsea in the first knockout round, with Ronaldinho scoring both goals in a 4-2 loss.[15]
With Ronaldinho's contract expiring in 2008, he was offered an extension until 2014 that would have net him £85 million over nine years,[16] but he turned it down. In September 2005, he signed a two-year extension that contained a minimum-fee release clause that allowed him to leave should a club make an offer to Barcelona of at least £85 million for him.[17]
By the end of the 2004-05 season, Ronaldinho had started to accumulate a host of personal awards. He won the inaugural FIFPro World Player of the Year in September 2005, in addition to being included in the FIFPro World XI. He was named as both the European Footballer of the Year. He was again named FIFA World Player of the Year with 956 points, more than triple the amount (306) of runner-up Frank Lampard. On 19 November, Ronaldinho scored twice as Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3-0 on the road in the first leg of the El Clásico. After he sealed the match with his second goal, he received a standing ovation from the Madrid fans.
Ronaldinho was chosen for the UEFA Team of the Year for the third consecutive time in January 2006, and he contributed one goal in Barcelona's elimination of Benfica in the '05-06 Champions League quarterfinals with a 2-0 home victory. After a 1-0 semifinal aggregate win over Milan, in which Ronaldinho assisted the series' only goal by Ludovic Giuly, Barcelona progressed to the Champions League final, which they won on 17 May 2006 with a 2-1 defeat of Arsenal. Two weeks earlier, Barcelona had clinched their second straight La Liga title with a 1-0 win over Celta Vigo, giving Ronaldinho his first career double. He finished the season with a career-best 26 goals in all competitions, and was named the 2005-06 Champions League Player of the Year.
On 25 November 2006, Ronaldinho scored his fiftieth career league goal against Villarreal, then later scored a second time with an overhead bicycle kick. He later said to reporters that the latter was a goal he had dreamed of scoring since he was a boy.[18] He scored once and set up two others in Barcelona's 4-0 Club World Cup win over Mexico's Club América on 14 December, but Barcelona were defeated 1-0 by Brazilian club Internacional in the final.[19] Ronaldinho was nonetheless the recipient of the Bronze Ball Award for the competition.
The next day, Ronaldinho finished third in the running for the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year, behind World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and Zinédine Zidane.[20] Ronaldinho was named among the UEFA Team of the Year for the third straight time in January 2007, receiving the highest number of votes in over 290,000 nominations.[21] He was forced to miss a charity match on 13 March due to an injury he had picked up several days earlier in Barcelona's 3-3 El Clásico draw with Real Madrid.[22][23]
He played his 200th career match for Barcelona in a league match against Osasuna on 3 February 2008. However, his 2007-08 campaign as a whole was plagued by injuries, and a muscle tear in his right leg on 3 April prematurely ended his season.[24] On 19 May, Laporta stated that Ronaldinho needed a "new challenge," claiming that he needed a new club if he were to revive his career.[25] Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed on 6 June that he was interested in acquiring him.[26]
Ronaldinho and Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi each captained a team of international stars in an anti-racism exhibition match in Venezuela on 28 June, which ended in a 7-7 draw. Ronaldinho finished with a pair of goals and two assists in what would be his last match as a Barcelona player.[27]
[edit] Milan
Ronaldinho turned down a £25.5 million offer from Manchester City[28] to join Italian giants Milan on a three-year contract, after he was purchased from Barcelona for €21 million.[29] With the number 10 already occupied by teammate Clarence Seedorf, he selected 80 as his jersey number, because 1980 was his birth year. Ronaldinho scored his first goal for Milan in a 1-0 derby victory over Internazionale on 28 September 2008, and his first brace was in a 3-0 win over Sampdoria on October 19, 2008. He scored a 93rd-minute match-winner against Braga in the UEFA Cup group stage on November 6.
[edit] International career
Ronaldinho is one of few Brazilian players to have played at every international age level. He was part of the first Brazilian team to win the FIFA U-17 World Championship in 1997, in which his first goal was a penalty against Austria in the first group match, which Brazil won 7-0. Ronaldinho finished with two goals and was awarded the Bronze Ball award as Brazil scored a total of twenty-one goals while only conceding two.
1999 was a busy year for Ronaldinho in terms of international play. He took part in the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship, scoring his first goal in Brazil's last group match. In the round of sixteen, he scored two first-half goals in a 4-0 win over Croatia, and finished with three goals as Brazil were eliminated by Uruguay in the quarterfinals. On 26 June, three days before the start of the 1999 Copa América, he earned his first cap for Brazil in a 3-0 win over Latvia, and he scored one goal during Brazil's victorious Copa América campaign. One week after the conclusion of the Copa América, he was called up for the 1999 Confederations Cup, in which he scored in every match, including a hat-trick in an 8-2 semifinal rout of Saudi Arabia. Ronaldinho missed the final, a 4-3 loss to Mexico, due to injury.
Ronaldinho participated in his first World Cup in 2002, as part of a formidable offensive unit with Ronaldo and Rivaldo, scoring two goals. One came in the quarterfinal against England on 21 June, before he was sent off for a foul on England defender Danny Mills. He was suspended for the semifinal, but returned to Brazil's starting lineup for the 2-0 victory over Germany in the final.
He captained Brazil to its second Confederations Cup title in 2005, and was named Man of the Match in a 4-1 victory over archrivals Argentina in the final on 29 June. Ronaldinho is tied with Cuauhtémoc Blanco as the tournament's all-time scorer with nine goals.
[edit] 2006 World Cup
Ronaldinho started in all five of Brazil's 2006 World Cup finals matches as part of a much-publicized "magic quartet" of offensive players, alongside Adriano, Ronaldo, and Kaká. However, the foursome finished with only five goals as Brazil disappointed as a whole in the tournament. Ronaldinho turned in his worst collective performance in his international career, going scoreless with only one assist, which was for Gilberto's goal in a 4-1 group stage victory over Japan. He was a non-factor as Brazil was eliminated by France 1-0 in the quarterfinal, in which Brazil had only one shot on goal for the entire match.[30] The team was harshly criticized by Brazilian fans and media following their return home. On 3 July, two days after Brazil's elimination, vandals immolated and destroyed a 7.5-meter (23-foot) tall fiberglass and resin statue of Ronaldinho in Chapecó.[31] The statue had been erected in 2004 to celebrate his first FIFA World Player of the Year award. That same day, Ronaldinho, joined by Adriano, returned to Barcelona and held a party at his home, which was continued into the early morning hours at a nightclub. This aggravated the hard feelings of many Brazilian fans, who believed that they were betrayed by the lack of effort from the squad.[32]
[edit] Post-World Cup
Ronaldinho has been fairly inactive under new coach Dunga, earning three caps in a six-month span following the World Cup. On 24 March 2007, he started for Brazil for the first time since September 2006 and netted twice in a 4-0 win over Chile, which marked his first goal since the 2005 Confederations Cup final and thus ended a scoreless streak that lasted nearly two years.[33] He was not called up for the 2007 Copa América, which was won by Brazil, and on 18 October, he was controversially benched by Barcelona after he was late returning to Spain following Brazil's 5-0 friendly win over Ecuador. He and several Brazil players celebrated the win by partying through the night at a posh Rio de Janeiro nightclub. Ronaldinho left at 11 a.m. the next morning, allegedly in the trunk of a car in order to avoid the media.[34]
Ronaldinho was named to Brazil's 2008 Summer Olympics squad on 7 July 2008.[35] Barcelona initially blocked the move because of his then-upcoming Champions League commitments with the club, but the decision was later nullified following Ronaldinho's transfer to Milan, who in turn permitted him to make the trip to Beijing.[36] Ronaldinho scored his only two goals in a decisive 5-0 defeat of New Zealand as Brazil finished with the bronze medal.
[edit] Statistics
Barcelona:
First match: Barcelona 1-0 Athletic Bilbao (30-08-2003)
Last match: Barcelona 2-3 Villarreal (09-03-2008)
207 matches - 95 goals
- La Liga: 145/70
- European Cups: 43/18
- UEFA Cup: 7/4
- UEFA Champions League: 35/14
- UEFA Super Cup: 1/0
- Copa del Rey: 13/4
- Supercopa de España: 4/2
- FIFA Club World Cup: 2/1
National team:
First cap: Brazil 3-0 Latvia (26.06.1999)
Last cap: Brazil 0-0 Bolivia (10.09.2008)
84 caps - 32 goals
[edit] Club career statistics
As of January 26, 2009[37]
| Brazil
<th colspan="2">League</th><th colspan="2">Copa do Brasil</th> <th colspan="2"> South America</th> <th colspan="2">Total</th> | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Grêmio | Série A | 6 | 1 | - | 6 | 1 | |||
| 1999 | 17 | 6 | - | 17 | 6 | |||||
| 2000 | 21 | 8 | - | 21 | 8 | |||||
| France
<th colspan="2">League</th><th colspan="2">Coupe de France</th> <th colspan="2"> Europe</th> <th colspan="2">Total</th> | ||||||||||
| 2001-02 | Paris Saint-Germain | Division 1 | 28 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 34 | 11 | ||
| 2002-03 | Ligue 1 | 27 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 31 | 9 | |||
| Spain
<th colspan="2">League</th><th colspan="2">Copa del Rey</th> <th colspan="2"> Europe</th> <th colspan="2">Total</th> | ||||||||||
| 2003-04 | FC Barcelona | La Liga | 32 | 15 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 4 | 45 | 22 |
| 2004-05 | 35 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 4 | 42 | 13 | ||
| 2005-06 | 29 | 17 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 45 | 26 | ||
| 2006-07 | 32 | 21 | 6 | 1 | 11 | 2 | 50 | 24 | ||
| 2007-08 | 18 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 25 | 9 | ||
| Italy
<th colspan="2">League</th><th colspan="2">Coppa Italia</th> <th colspan="2"> Europe</th> <th colspan="2">Total</th> | ||||||||||
| 2008-09 | Milan | Serie A | 22 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 23 | 9 |
[edit] Honours
[edit] FC Barcelona
[edit] International
|
[edit] Individual
|
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Template:Commonscat Template:Wikiquote
- Ronaldinho FIFA competition record
- Ronaldinho Gaúcho Official Website Template:Es icon Template:Pt icon Template:En icon Template:It icon
- Ronaldinho profile at FC Barcelona website
- Ronaldinho profile at FIFA website
- Ronaldinho career stats at Soccerbase
- FootballDatabase career stats
- Ronaldinho profile at BBC Sport website
Template:Navboxes Template:AC Milan squad
Cite error:
<ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found
