Interviews
You are now 25 years old. What has been the best moment of your life?
“I have had many great moments. Thanks to God I have had a very good life since I was young, both in football and away from it. I have enjoyed a lot of good times that I will always remember.”
It is said that a player reaches his peak at 28. Are you still learning and do you think that we have not seen the best of Ronaldinho yet?
“I believe that a football player continues to learn right up until he retires. I am still young and I can still improve. They do say that 28 is the age when you are your best and I am very pleased that I still have plenty of years ahead of me and a lot more to learn.”
What differences do you think there are between Ronaldinho this season compared to last?
“I think the main difference is that I have continued to mature. I am more mature not than I was last year and more so today than even yesterday, that’s the way life is.”
What is main difference between the team this term, compared to the team last season?
“They are totally opposite. Last year we did not have a very good first half to the season and there were many changes, both with the board and the playing squad, but we ended the campaign strongly. This year we started very well with all the new players and things have continued like that.”
You have had your first taste of the Champions League this season. How did you find it?
“In that competition every game is like a final and the fans expectations are very different. It is a very important step for a player to take in his career. Things went well, but they could have been a lot better. We lost, but we use that a lesson for next season.”
You have always said that you are more of a creator than a goalscorer. Is your role in the side this season allowing you to do more of that?
“With the new signings that have come in this season I am able to do more of what I like. It appears that this year is not as good because I am scoring less goals, but on the other hand now I have the chance to do the things I want and the things I know I can do well.”
Is the secret of the team the fact that there are so many young players who are all desperate to win trophies?
“The secret is the great respect we all have for each other and that when we play we always give everything.”
The spine of the team is made up of young players. Could it be said that this team is not only one for the present, but also for the future?
“It is a young team and I think that in a couple of years we will be really, really, good and will be capable of competing for every honour and that we will play to win every competition we compete in.”
How does the fact that Frank Rijkaard won so many trophies as a player help in his role as coach?
“There a quite a few players that have won many things, but have not done well when they have become trainers. On the other hand, there are great coaches that never won anything when they played. The great thing here is that we have a coach that won so much as a player, but also that is an extraordinary person who is always calm, but also has a few tricks to help us win every game.”
King of Modern Football
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.
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 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.
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.
