Ronaldinho Has Left the Building

I’ve got some news for you. The Ronaldinho we knew and loved in 2006 is gone, and he’s not coming back. That Ronaldinho was young, happy and healthy. And the football he played was brilliant. For a while there it was as if YouTube existed purely to showcase his moves. But that was two seasons ago.

Since then we’ve seen the Brazilian play a poor World Cup 2006 followed by an underwhelming season at Barcelona. Then he missed the Copa Amierca 2007, and was relegated to the Barca bench this season. It didn’t stop him getting into nightclubs, but things pretty much hit rock bottom recently with a series of injuries (both real and imaginary) used as a pretext for keeping him away from the Barca first team altogether.

And still we keep talking about Ronaldinho coming back. But he isn’t. Not ever. Not the way we remember him anyway, the way he used to move past defenders as if they weren’t there. Every day we talk about Ronaldinho recapturing his 2005/6 form, Ronaldinho gets another day older. A a little bit fatter and a little less fitter.

The most recent rumours have ‘Dinho taking middle of the night secret medical tests, and getting very very bad results. The summary (translated into English) is that Ronaldinho’s condition is “disastrous” and “much worse than people think.” And we already thought it was pretty bad.

It’s possible that said tests were for the benefit of prospective buyers AC Milan. If so, then they weren’t very pleased with the results. After winning the Milan derby on Sunday, Silvio Berlusconi told reporters “I have always been doubtful over whether Ronaldinho is needed, at this point I really think we don’t need him.”

Quite a statement given Milan’s multiple year chase for the Brazilian. And now they’ve signed Mathieu Flamini, who’ll arguably be more a lot more useful.

It’s possible Berlusconi is just trying to drive the price down and it’s possible – or at least it’s rumoured – that Man City will meet Barcelona’s 40 million euro asking price and the player will end up in England.

But whoever gets Ronaldinho will be getting Ronaldinho 2008, not Ronaldinho 2006. He might still be useful, he might pull off a few more moments of magic, but he won’t be the all-conquering force he once was. You only really get to the be the best player in the world once, and Ronaldinho’s time has come and gone.

Some Related Stories:

Category: World Football