First the appendices of the Olimpico Stadium, Next the Seleção
Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, known as “Ronaldinho Gaúcho", was born in March
21st, 1980 in Porto Alegre. He’s grown playing with the round ball, in a family that have always considered the football as a true passion. His mother was a nurse while his father was a welder in an arsenal. In order to earn more money for taking care of his three children, his father has guarded the Grêmio Porto Alegre’s parking too. During his childhood, Ronaldinho had been already repered by Grêmio, and the club had also offered a villa to his family, in order to keep the young prodigy. The coaches had already seen in him a future great talent to the club. But, whereas Ronaldinho was eight years old, a drama shaked his family: his father died after a domestic accident. Perhaps it was after this event that Ronaldinho intensified his desire to go always further, to reach the top.
During his formation, he progressed very quickly, without burning
stages. Before working in Grêmio’s professional team, Ronaldinho was selected to be a part of the brazilian team under 17, to compete for the World cup of this category, in Egypt, 1997. He won the title of world champion and he was elected the best player of the competition! From then on, the top football teams started to observe Ronaldinho Gaúcho’s talent, and Grêmio started to receive many offers. Thus, PSV Eindhoven, which had already reveled Ronaldo and Romário in Europe a few years before, has proposed 7 million euros to the club to count on the services of the young star. A rare proposal for a seventeen years old player, but the brazilian club refused nevertheless, knowing the future and the talent which Ronnie already had.
[photo=roni1.jpg id=26 align=left]And it was in 1999 that Ronnie appeared for the first time in the
professional team of his formative club. Throughout that season, he
enchanted the Olímpico Monumental"s stadium with his fantastic dribbles, his great technical. He scored fourteen goals in only fifteen matches, becoming therefor the best striker of the Rio Grande do Sul State League, and carrying out both the championship and the cup of Rio Grande do Sul with Grêmio.
Wanderley Luxemburgo, the Seleção’s coach, couldn’t remain indifferent with the performances of Ronaldinho, and called him to compete for the “Copa América", in Paraguay. Ronaldinho would score an anthological goal against Venezuela which will reveal definitively his talent to the world.
After been champion of the world under 17, Ronaldinho won the Copa América in 1999. During the same year, he also competed for the Confederations Cup, of which he has ended as the best striker of the competition and a finalist.
A Pentacampão now King of Spain
A lot of clubs were more and more interested in him, and Grêmio refused the colossal amount of 75 million euros proposed by Leeds United, which could have been a new record. In 2000, Ronaldinho competed for a second season with Grêmio.
But at the end of the contract, he chose not to prolong the adventure with his formative club, fearing to revive the events of the previous season and to see his club refusing all the offers.
In spite of the beautiful history between the player and his supporters, Ronaldinho left Grêmio Porto Alegre scoring a fabulous goal during his last match, which haven’t stopped the supporters from bidding their farewell with whistles of recognition of the player’s talent. Ronaldinho signed next with Paris Saint German which succeeded in the moving of the Brazilian star in 2001. Ronaldinho’s agent is his own brother, Roberto Assis, who is very experimented in the professional level. Ronnie competed for his first match in France against Auxerre. He scored his first goal in League One in the “Parc des Princes" against Lyon (2-2). He quickly became an high-speed player of the French championship, in spite of a rather timid begin. He scored nine goals in twenty-eight games of L1, and became the idol of all the parisian supporters.
[photo=roni3.jpg id=26 align=right]Luís Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian coach, selected him to the World cup in 2002, in South Korea and Japan. It was Romário who colaboreted for the impressive gone up of Ronaldinho. In Asia, Ronnie was a titular beside Ronaldo. He scored a goal against China (4-0), then an exceptional goal in quarter of final against England (2-1): Ronaldinho “lobes" Seaman, whereas everyone expected a center kick. Unfortunately, the n°10 would be expelled at the end of the match, thus he missed the semi-final against Turkey. But thanks to a Ronaldo shoot, Brazil was classified for the final, in which Ronnie would take part. Then, he became a World Champion thanks to the victory of 2-0 over Germany.
During his following season with Paris, he succeeded in a similar way as he did the previous season. He scored eight goals in twenty-seven matches of the championship. Then, he played his last match with Paris during the French Cup final, unfortunately won by Auxerre. In conflict with his coach, Luis Fernandez, Ronaldinho left PSG, without being able to offer the french title to the Parisian supporters. He travelled on July 20th, 2003 to Barcelona. The amount of the transfer would be approximately thirty million euros, for a five years contract. Since his arrival in the Catalan club, Ronaldinho was recieved as a genuine star. He didn’t take long in charming the Spanish supporters with his dribbles. That season, he scored fourteen goals in thirty matches of the championship with “Barça". He won in particular the EFE Trophy, rewarding the best South American player of the Spanish championship.
He is only twenty-four years old and he has already nearly seventy international selections with the brazilian national team. Ronaldinho Gaúcho makes already part of the best attackers group of the world, and still has all the future in front of him to face new challenges and to win a lot of great titles.
Translation: Ana Carolina Furlaneto Saraiva
