Ronaldinho’s endless panto
Posted on | September 23, 2009 | No Comments
“Oh yes he is” followed by “oh no he isn’t” have been the words ringing inbetween Ronaldinho’s ears for quite some time now.
The AC Milan midfielder is constantly the subject of debate as to whether or not he will recover his best form and fitness – which now seems a pointless exercise given how long it’s been running for.
Back in November 2006 he capped off an inspired performance for his former club, Barcelona, with a stunning overhead kick against Villareal.
The goal was seen as a message to his critics – a flamboyant and colourful ‘fuck you’ to the people who had labelled him out of shape and past his best. At that time I was not among them. I am now.
Let’s look at that goal again, with all its beauty, craft and taste of Brazilian magic. It smelled of kicked-up sand on a Rio beach. It was also almost three years ago.
It’s now a footballing eon since Ronaldinho first started to hear the calls of derision which have been heading his way in Milan this week, where rumours surfaced that he was considering retirement thanks to a report in a Spanish-based newspaper.
He was quick to rebuff them, saying, rather semi-reassuringly, that he wanted to see out his contract at Milan, which runs until 2011.
But true or not, the report did throw up one Ronaldinho option that we haven’t heard before – that he should just pack it in and be done with it.
It sounds extreme, but is it? Let’s look at the facts;
His best season was in 2005 to 2006, when he scored 26 times in 46 appearances for Barcelona and helped them lift the league title. He then went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany and it appears this summer is where the rot set in – like his international team-mates he was a big let-down as he failed to score once as Brazil went out to France,1-0, at the quarter final stage.
After the World Cup he went back to Barcelona, and, according to reports, did what he loves doing as much as he loves playing football – partied until the sun went down and came up again.
He came back to pre-season looking, quite frankly, rather heavy and was put to work by the Barcelona back room staff, to little avail. However the next season he did manage 25 goals in 49 appearances, although he did tend to rely heavily that term on penalties and free-kicks.
His last season in Barcelona saw him battle fitness and injury problems almost constantly, making only 17 league appearances, before he moved to Milan and blew hot and mainly cold last season, scoring only eight goals in the league.
Which brings us today – where still, still, he looks pretty much as out of shape as he did in pre-season in 2006.
Maybe it’s time we all woke up, particularly those of us in the Italian and Brazilian media, and saw what has been before our eyes for three years – Ronaldinho is never again going to be the lithe, quick-witted magician he was in 2005-2006.
If he was, he’d have got there by now.
Chris Breese
[Photo: Simone S CC]
Tags: AC Milan > barcelona > Brazil > Brazilan Football > Italian Football > Ronaldino
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