Dunga lets Ronaldinho put his feet up

By: Daryl | May 19th, 2007

Dunga with CBF Poor old Dunga had some explaining to do yesterday. The Brazil coach took the job amid promises that he’d be more disciplined and only accommodate players who offered 100% commitment to the Seleção, just like he did when he was a tough-tackling midfielder. But now his two star players have both asked for the summer off, with both Ronaldinho and Kaka asking permission to skip the Copa America in Venezuela next month, and the coach has acquiesced.

“When someone doesn’t want to play, you can’t force them,” he said. “They didn’t feel their holidays after the last World Cup were enough to give them time to fully recover.”

Would be easy to shout “hypocrite!” in Dunga’s direction, and to lambast Kaka and Ronaldinho’s lack of commitment, but I think it’s time we were more realistic about the demands on professional players. Yes, they’re rewarded (very) handsomely, but can you imagine being told you can’t ever take some time off work?

If you’ve seen Ronaldinho play lately, the lad looks tired. He doesn’t flash that famous grin, or those famous skills anywhere near as often as he did last season. At least some of that is because he played a very long season in 05/06 (going all the way to the Champions League Final) then was launched straight into a disappointing (for him) World Cup, then he toured the USA with Barca (and he had to play because he was the main draw) and then straight back into the 2006/7 La Liga season (which apparently goes on forever, there’s still a few games to go and it’s already past mid-May.)

I say if the fella wants to put his talented feet up for a couple of months then it benefits us all to let him to do it. He can have a holiday, rest up and then come back refreshed to entertain us all in the 2007/8 season. As for Kaka, he must have worn himself out juggling mobile phones.

Dunga won’t be reprimanding his two stars (”I don’t think they will be marked in the future” he said) and he even plans to pick them for the big friendly against England at shiny New Wembley in early June. And though Dunga is sort of going back on his word, I think he’s shown some coaching wisdom. Rather than let a will-they-won’t-they play saga develop, he’s taken the decision early, recognized his players aren’t machines and kept his two star names happy. In some ways he’s stayed true to his word, because taking two players to Venezuela who weren’t 100% committed to the cause is exactly the situation he wanted to avoid. Besides, this is Brazil we’re talking about. I’m sure they won’t have any trouble finding a couple extra creative midfielders.