So… listen to this… Back in 2006 Ronaldinho was on top of the world… and I mean this quite literally… Not only had he been named the best player on the planet two years in a row… but now he had taken the Champions League trophy less than a month before the world cup started… he was the face of football, the ultimate poster boy and he had fans betting their houses away that come the end of that tournament, the end of that year, he would be named the world’s greatest player once more… but regardless… only 18 days after that, back in Brazil… they would be burning down his statues… Ronaldinho hadn’t just disappointed… he had crashed out of the tournament without scoring a single goal, getting outshined and knocked out… by a 34 year old Zidane that was one week away from hanging his boots for good… and that really got to him… As his teammate, Aleksander Hleb, famously said… he would routinely show up to training either drunk or hungover… before you knew it, he was going almost a year without playing for Brazil and then Guardiola pretty much kicked him out of Barcelona, saying that he was a bad influence on Lionel Messi… By the time he got to AC Milan, the world saw him as nothing but an out of control overweight has-been… and he ended up paying the price for that… Two years after arriving in Italy, Ronaldinho was his team’s top scorer, he was the top assist provider across the entire country, he was averaging a goal contribution every 98 minutes… Back in Brazil, the polls claimed 89% of the population wanted to see him at the 2010 world cup… Romário, Muricy Ramalho, Vanderlei Luxemburgo and damn near every other big name in the sport campaigned in his favor… and yet when the list was made public… his name wasn’t there… Ronaldinho had lost his chance to redeem himself… and to this day, many believe this was the end… but that’s why I made this video… those people are massively wrong… After 6 more months of wallowing in his own self pity… Something awoke inside Ronaldinho… and he announced to the world that, even though he would be 34 years old by then… he would do anything in his power to make it to the 2014 world cup… and with his reputation destroyed in Europe, the first step was to get back to Brazil… he just had to figure out… to what club… exactly… Everyone thought he’d go back to Grémio… but well… if you need to know something about Ronaldinho, it’s that his brother/agent was always the one calling the shots and… let’s just say… he isn’t the most sentimental person… In fact, he didn’t even care that Ronaldinho himself had already told the press that “if it was up to my own wishes, I’d already be at Grémio”. . .
or that he had already shook hands with the club president… or even that Grémio were literally already in the middle of preparing Ronaldinho’s presentation… When Flamengo showed up with a millionaire offer, he went back on his word without thinking twice… The whole situation was so shameless, that even Pelé himself called the transfer saga “a sickening process”. . .
while the president of Grémio ended up insinuating that Ronaldinho’s brother was “a psychopath”. . .
as you may imagine, the fans never forgave either of them Regardless, with Ronaldinho being lured into changing his mind thanks to the famous “nightclub clause” that contractually allowed him to party for two nights a week… the deal was done… and half of Rio went crazy… 20 thousand fans rushed towards the club’s training center… they literally knocked down the gates so they could see Ronaldinho… I’m not even exaggerating, the man looked scared… but these fans did had a reason to be euphoric… Sure… Flamengo were the supposed kings of Brazil, with more national championships than any other club… but just the year before, they had finished 2 points off of relegation… this man was their savior… once he arrived at the club, they immediately made him captain, free kick and corner kick taker… they just handed everything off to him, said “please save us” and no joke… 9 matches later, Ronaldinho was already scoring the decisive goal in the final of the Guanabara Cup…. that’s what you call “instant impact”. .
. and the funny thing is that then they won the Rio Cup as well, which is a problem… because the winners of those two competitions are supposed to play each other for the title of Carioca Champion, but they had won both so… there was no way to even play the final… they just gave them the trophy… Regardless, don’t think, for a second, that Ronaldinho had just turned into a hardworking god fearing man overnight… All throughout those months, the fans kept spotting him jumping from one nightclub to the other and hilariously, once the national championship started, they lost their patience… and by that, I mean that a group of fans set up what they called “disk dentuço”. .
. a hotline fans could call to report if they happened to spot Ronaldinho in a nightclub… to which, and this is a direct quote from a newspaper: “the plan was to man mark Ronaldinho, to put him under pressure… Whenever they call, we’ll send someone to find him and try to convince him to go back home”. .
. And look, they claim they received about 4000 calls… and sure, clearly 90% were pranks… but one thing you can’t take away from them…is that… Ronaldinho was playing well up till then, but once the whole thing began… he started 13 matches, scored 12 goals, assisted another 5 and led Flamengo on an unbelievable unbeaten streak… I’ll even go one step further… Only 6 matches into that period, he put down one of the best performances of his career, in what has become known as “the game of the century”. .
. Look, let me set the stage for you… Neymar vs Ronaldinho, Santos vs Flamengo, one had just won the Libertadores a month before, the other was right in the middle of a streak where they were defeated only once in the span of 42 matches… as they say… let the games begin… 5 minutes in, Santos went in front… Then, Neymar assisted the second with a sort of bicycle kick… and with maybe the greatest miss of all time in between… Neymar came back and scored literally the goal of the year… there isn’t much more that can be said about that… except for one thing… it was time for the king to show the prince how it was done… Just 2 minutes later, Ronaldinho scored the easiest tap in the world, 4 minutes after that Flamengo scored another… and two minutes out from half time, Neymar goes down in the box, Elano hits the panenka, misses it so hard, the goalkeeper ends up doing kick ups right in front of him and only 58 seconds later, Ronaldinho hits the corner and Deivid, the guy who had missed the open goal, ties the match before half time… But again, we were only midway through the match… once it restarted, Neymar scored another beautiful goal and that’s when Ronaldinho really woke up… first rolling in a free kick underneath the wall and then with the clock counting down, knowing that whoever scores, not only wins but gets the hat trick… Ronaldinho gets the ball on the left side and smacks in the winner… Ladies and gentleman, it doesn’t get much better than that… In fact, Ronaldinho was truly performing the miracle they had asked of him… About a month after the match, Flamengo were top of the league… keep in mind, they had only won the national championship once in the past 19 years… it was all shocking enough that Ronaldinho actually made it back to the national team… but then, the problems started… You see, the only reason Flamengo had been able to make Ronaldinho that “millionaire offer” was that they made a deal with this sports marketing agency named Traffic… but then they got into a whole mess with both parties insisting the other half wasn’t holding up their end of the deal… so Traffic stopped paying Ronaldinho and his form just evaporated instantly… he barely ever scored and suddenly they were on a rut of 4 wins in 16 matches, dropping all the way down to 4th place… which the Grémio fans loved, making sure mock him by waving one real bills with his face on them as they beat Flamengo 4 to 2… Still… with Ronaldinho finishing the year as his team’s top scorer and the board insisting they would find a way to pay him out of their own pocket, he stayed for one more season… but even though he picked his form back up again, clutching up their Libertadores play-offs with a goal and an assist after a first leg defeat… and then even leading the tournament on assists… only 5 months into the season, his brother lost it for good… He went into one of the club’s stores, took 40 shirts and tried to leave without paying, telling them that “they owed his brother much more money than those shirts were worth”. .
. eventually forcing one of the club’s financial directors to come down there and get it sorted… which was so embarrassing, they ended up just terminating his contract… Suddenly, Ronaldinho’s redemption arc was back to square one… but that didn't phase him because 300 miles away, Atlético Mineiro had already been preparing for this… The moment their manager Cuca saw the news that Ronaldinho was out of Flamengo, he called the president and straight up told him “Our number 10 is waiting for us”. .
. 6 days later, Ronaldinho was already signing a new contract and this time, no one could come out saying it was all about money… he would only be paid one fourth of what he was getting at Flamengo… and again, the moment the rumors of this transfer surfaced, everyone lost their minds… the first time Ronaldinho secretly visited their training center, there were news helicopters flying above, trying to get a glimpse of the man… every reporter seemed to think they were crazy for taking him in… but president Kalil insisted: “I may be mad, but I’m not mad enough to turn down the chance to sign Ronaldinho''. .
. and the man had a point… Looking at that squad, on paper, it looked like 10 men plus Ronaldinho… Up front, they had Jô, who had flopped at Man City, Bernard, who’d go on to flop even harder at Everton and Guilherme who went from Football Manager cult hero to playing in the 4th tier… from top to bottom, there was nothing impressive about that starting eleven… even their manager Cuca was known as this “hit or miss” kind of guy that had been made into a punching bag by the supporters, who did not tolerate the fact that he had come straight from their rivals Cruzeiro… After surviving relegation by a mere 4 points the year before, there were jokes going around that Mineiro couldn’t even bring 2000 fans to their stadium… but all that was just talk… the reality was that this was a hungry squad, with some down on their luck players desperate to prove the world wrong so they deposited all their hope on Ronaldinho… as one teammate explained in a podcast: “He could be an hour late to training, no one would bat an eye, we would all just stand there playing rondo, waiting for him… even when he wasn’t fit to train, he’d come in, wait for the press to leave and then go up to his room to rest”… it was all about keeping the drama to a minimum and allowing the man to do his magic… there was only one ultimatum: “You show up drunk once… you’re out”. .
. Regardless, with the man arriving just as the Brazilian Championship started, the timing was perfect and he did not waste a single second… 3 months later, he had already led the club on a 14 match unbeaten streak, even scoring an incredible solo goal to put his team in front in the last minute of their match against city rivals Cruzeiro and… even better, thanks to that goal this supposed “relegation squad” were to able to hold on to the top of the league charts with only 18 matches left in the season… From that moment on, they kept fighting, trying stay one step ahead… and when 3 narrow defeats saw them drop to second, even with Ronaldinho’s step father suddenly passing away from a heart attack, the same way his biological father had died back when he was a kid… not only did he refuse to miss the next match they had to play the very next day, but he went in, scored after 12 minutes and despite not being able to hold the tears back as he celebrate the goal… he kept going and closed out the game with 3 goals and 2 assists, leading Mineiro to their biggest ever win in the Brazilian Championship… He even closed out the season with 11 goal contributions in 9 matches, but as much as he tried, they still fell 5 points short of the title… However, there were two clear silver linings, first of all, Ronaldinho won the golden ball being named the best player in the country… and more importantly, that second place, meant he had secured qualification to the Copa Libertadores… and all that, put together, meant he was back in the national team… so the next year, with Atlético Mineiro legends Diego Tardelli and Gilberto Silva back at the club, it was time to go above and beyond… and the strategy was simple… They rested Ronaldinho for most of the Mineiro Championship matches and when it was time to play the Libertadores, they unleashed the beast… Right from the first match, facing off precisely against São Paulo, Ronaldinho assisted two goals to clutch the 2 to 1 win… but look at how he got that first assist… He went up to Rogério Ceni asking for water and knowing there can never be an offside coming from a throw-in… he asked for the ball, squared it to Jô and that was it… The next match was against Arsenal De Sarandi and again he was man of the match, assisting Bernard twice and then putting in the cross for his hat trick… Then, against The Strongest, he assisted Jô for the first and scored the second for yet another 2-1 win… but the real problem would be facing them away at Bolivia, where the altitude affects foreign players so much, the medical staff has to bring in oxygen tanks… For some perspective, they hadn’t lost to a foreign team in 7 years… Mineiro, themselves arrived 8 days earlier, just to prepare the players for that one match… and only then were they able to beat them, with Ronaldinho starting the play that put them ahead and sort of forcing an own goal for… another 2-1 win… and once that was done, he went and took the man of the match against Arsenal De Sarandi once more… not just assisting the final goal and converting a penalty but also… scoring one of the goals of the tournament… Finally, with their first place finish already secured, they sort of slipped and lost the last match against São Paulo… allowing them to qualify for knockout stages as the worst second placed team… meaning they would have to face each other again in the last 16 round… which was fine until Ronaldinho decided to tell the press in the post match interview that: “Honestly, I’m not worried, this was like a practice match for us”. .
. pissing off the entire São Paulo squad and creating a media storm that had thousands of fans waiting for their downfall and eventually getting their hopes up as São Paulo went in front 9 minutes into the first leg… only for Ronaldinho to tie the match back up with a header and go crazy celebrating the goal, yelling the club’s motto on top of his lungs… eventually delivering the classiest assist imaginable as they destroyed them 6 to 2 on aggregate… And even in the middle of all of this, Ronaldinho managed to take time away from the Libertadores to face Cruzeiro for the final of the Mineiro Championship and not only did he assist two in the first leg, getting Mineiro their biggest win against their rivals in 6 years, but once they were 1 goal away from a comeback in the second leg, he came in to score the goal that ensured they would get their trophy… After this, things didn’t exactly slow down either… After being 2 nil down in their quarter final first leg against Tijuana, Ronaldinho came in with the assist that started the comeback and again, in the second leg, with Mineiro going behind again, he assisted the decisive goal… though, to be fair, the real miracle only came when their goalkeeper, who’d become known as “Saint Victor” from that day on, saved a last minute penalty, getting the whole stadium to start chanting: “I believe”. .
. but then… things went very wrong… After over a year of strangely “good behavior”. .
. right before the semi finals were to be played, Ronaldinho showed up to the team’s camp in the middle of the night, drunk, blaring music from a portable speaker… When the players woke up the next day, the president had already kicked him out of the club… It was thisss close to being the most anti-climatic ending ever, but then the players heard that he was already getting on a plane to Rio, so they got in a car, raced to the airport and got him back to the training center… After a lengthy team meeting in the locker room, his teammates told the president they would take the blame for anything Ronaldinho may do in the future that “if we want to win the Libertadores, we need this guy”. .
. and the rest is history… A few days later, they once again lost the first leg 2 nil, this time against the Newell’s Old Boys of Maxi Rodriguez… and despite critics claiming that Ronaldinho seemed off his game… Only 2 minutes into the second leg, he assisted Bernard for the opening goal and 80 minutes later with the team seeming unable to break past the deadlock… the lights of the stadium went out… the match stopped, the whole squad gathered by the sideline and I don’t know what Cuca told them… but they went back in, tied the match and eventually won on penalties… ask any Mineiro fan and they’ll tell you this was divine intervention… After going through all of this, there was nothing that could bring them down and so… when they were sent into the second leg of the first Libertadores final in their history with a 2 goal deficit yet again… they didn’t care that Olimpia had already started preparing for their celebrations… Even once it became clear that that day, luck would not be on Ronaldinho’s side, after 7 months allowing him to carry them, the team took charge and forced the game into penalties…half an hour later… Atlético Mineiro were South American Champions and Ronaldinho had won what seemed like the only trophy missing from his cabinet… and once the reporters got to him, he only had one thing to say: “Not long ago everyone said I was finished… Let them talk now”. .
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