On Ronaldinho’s Sour Love Affair With FC Barcelona
43rd minute at the Mestalla on Saturday night. FC Barcelona are winning against Valencia CF 2-0 and are in cruise control. Then a cruel thing happens: Lionel Messi pulls a hamstring and is escorted off the pitch.
Then a doubly cruel thing happens: Ronaldinho, who is on the substitute’s bench for yet another La Liga game, has almost hopped out of his seat on the dug-out in eager anticipation of trotting onto the pitch, but his manager doesn’t see him (or possibly refuses to) and throws Giovanni Dos Santos into the mix.
Ronaldinho sinks back into his seat, the gleam of light darkening on his face and he is perhaps waiting for another chance to seep into the action. But unfortunately for Ronaldinho, that Second Coming never comes.
Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…..the countdown has begun. Not for El Clasico to storm into center-stage, not for the onrushing Christmas break, but for the departure of a certain Ronaldinho Gaucho from Camp Nou. Rarely do you make it through a day without stumbling across the words Barcelona, Ronaldinho and AC Milan all stringed into one sentence. Since the summer, the Brazilian ace has been the focus of much attention in the transfer market and that medley of speculation claims and counter-claims has not faded away. Far from it, it has only increased in density and intensity.
The Spanish press and the Italian press both seem to be in a fierce competition to rumble on the rumor mill on Ronaldinho. While reports from Italy have all but confirmed that Milan supreme Silvio Berlusconi has struck a deal with Ronaldinho’s brother-cum-agent Roberto de Assis, the Spanish scribes are treading with one step wrapped up in a shoe called caution. Pro-Madrid Marca, Spain’s highest selling sports daily, says that Ronaldinho is packing his bags for the San Siro at the end of the season while Catalan sports daily Sport.es doesn’t exactly deny the claim but do add a clause—that Ronaldinho will move to AC Milan and only AC Milan if and when he leaves Camp Nou and that the move won’t take place in January.
One and a half season ago, you would have been labeled a madman, a fit-only-for-the-asylum lunatic had you conceived the idea that Ronaldinho as to leave the Camp Nou cathedral ever. At the time he was the God of the religion of football in Catalonia. If, as Sir Bobby Robson once so famously observed, “Catalonia is a nation and FC Barcelona its army,” then Ronaldinho was its adopted general—a man who led by example and always with a cheeky grin playing on his lips, a man who was Catalonia’s Savior.
It was Ronaldnho’s extremely good form intertwined with his undeniable high class that Barca scaled the mountain to gallop from a UEFA Cup spot to second place in La Liga in the 2002-2003 season it was this man considered as “too ugly to sell shirts” by the then Real Madrid president Florentino Prerez who played the multiple character roles of an architect, a craftsman and a poet to lead Barca by the hand to their first Spanish title in six heavily limping years; it was Ronaldinho who sparked a suspicion of hope for the traveling Barcelona supporters at Stamford Bridge in 2005 when he scored an outrageously ridiculous chip against Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League, last 16, second leg match.
Even last season, with a dip in form but a reported upturn in body mass, Ronaldinho was one of Barcelona’s most efficient players. As an attacking midfielder, Ronaldinho’s tally of 23 goals in all competitions appears as much as astounding as heartening. Ronnie’s form had been fluctuating all of last season but it was he who in the absence of Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi had transformed himself into a goal scorer for a club that prefers good football to winning at all cost. Ronnie wasn’t the best even in La Liga last season but he exhibited that he still was one an amazing sorcerer. Remember that overhead kick against Villarreal? Yes, that one, the goal that even Marca acknowledges as a top draw, a goal at doesn’t lose any credit even if the defender marking Ronaldinho was a certain Pascal Cygan and everyone knows how good, or bad, a defender he is, right?
But this season is different. The suspicion that Ronaldinho is no longer the player hat he was once was and that he can be no longer reach his old ghost from the yesteryears has ballooned into an over-fed confirmation. It’s not so much a surprise as sad to discern Barca fans booing their old and favorite hero off the pitch. Ronaldinho’s fling with poor performance has metamorphosed into a dreadful love affair to such a degree that even 5 goals in 11 matches and a few scintillating tricks are not enough to convince Frank Rijkaard to reward him with a regular place in the starting line-up. Ronaldinho missed Barca’s big night out against Sevilla FC where he wasn’t even inside the stadium as Barca comfortably beat the Andalucians and he watched Saturday’s 3-0 humiliation of Valencia from the uncharted territory of the bench.
Impossible as it may seem but Barcelona do not appear to miss Ronaldinho. Barca might not lead La Liga but after a so-called mini crisis at the start of the season when the Catalan giants were held to draws by Racing Santander and Osasuna, they have stepped on the accelerator, improved their enthralling playing style and are now second in the league table, 4 points behind leaders and reigning champions Real Madrid. Gabriel Milito is a rock in central defense, and is more than capable of covering up for the often comically erratic but world class Carles Puyol, Andrei Iniesta has developed into a marvelous midfielder whose ball possession is better than anyone else, Xavi is now Pep Guardiola II and much more and Samuel Eto’o has returned to the side after missing three months with injuries and has already started banging in goals, right, left and center and nothing-good-enough-can-be-said-for Lionel Messi is the new heartthrob.
And it is Messi’s rise over the past couple of seasons that could just open the door for Barca to walk out Rnaldinho. Not that Messi wants it to be that way— the Argentine international hardly ever speaks and at 20 has a mature and humble head on a young and nimble body. Messi is still the wonder kid, a humble boy who loves and is loved by everyone inside the Barcelona camp and his genius to win matches almost single-handedly has convinced the Camp Nou that he’s Catalonia’s very own Messiah. That was something that was solely the right of Ronaldinho not so long ago.
The Barca fans have already shifted their embrace from Ronaldinho to Messi and it is clear that Ronaldinho’s exodus from Camp Nou wouldn’t so much entice them to dig out the handkerchiefs and dab at the corners of the eyes as play an acknowledging smile on their faces and wave a hearty goodbye with a resounding Adios. President Joan Laporta et al are doing all they can to eclipse the swelling doubts on Ronaldinho’s future at the club but the crack are evident on the wall. Ronnie’s brother’s de Assis too is waving off any transfer rumors hovering over the player but is often betraying himself. That Ronnie is sticking to the Camp Nou till the end of the season is certain but after that it will be a free-for-all.
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Discussion - 9 Responses
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I just wanted to point out to you that Ronaldinho was overlooked on Saturday because Barcelona were 2 goals up and Valencia never really looked like scoring a goal. Therefore Rijkaard took the opportunity to give dos Santos another run out to gain valuable experience.
Also there is little reason for Ronaldinho to be unhappy and want to leave. If anything he should be grateful. Rijkaard continued playing him even when his form was disatrous. but then it just got too bad, so he was “injured”. When he came back from that “injury” he looked a new player: not as flashy, doubly efficient. He has shown bits of his new self continuously since then.
You ask then ‘why should he be grateful to Rijkaard?’ Well, when most coaches would simply dump a player for a few bad performances, Rijkaard took a whole different approach with Ronaldinho: he helped him on the road to reinvention. During those weeks Ronaldinho was probably working hard to return to form and the injury was something made up to: a) take the pressure of him and let him work in peace b) take the media of Rijkaard’s back for not selecting him c) not spark speculation.
Ronaldinho is today a better player than he was last season. All he now needs to do is regain his self confidence and be given a chance to flash those boots of his in front of the ball. El Classico is a set stage for the Brazilian and hopefully - for the eyes of millions of fans across the world, he will show us his new self on Sunday.
As for him leaving… why would he? More money? Not possible. More fame? He is the darling of 90,000 fans week in week out. A new challange? He is already on a mission to regain his form. The fact that he has not been playing as well over the past year and a bit and that he is not playing every game now is no reason to be sure that he will leave the Nou Camp in a matter of months.
i think ronaldinho may be suited 2 another club these days, messi will be the new ronaldinho 4 barcelona so i think ronni should be traded to maybe a club like chelsea… i cant see him going well at milan because they already enough in the attack department….
although just like ballack and shevchenko, may find it hard to cope with the premier leauge style
if any club was to benefit from the trading of ronaldinho it should be in the end of season trade window rather than the mid season
I actually don’t see any reason for him to be actually made to sit on the bench instead of being part of the starting 11.Agreed,he has lost his trickery and skills that he possessed 2-3seasons back but now he passes the ball with more accuracy and works even more hard than what he used to.It would be disastrous for Barcelona to lose him like Real Madrid did with Beckham where his potential was seen by the world ,especially Fabio Capello who thought he was a misfit for the Spanish league.If at all he is traded which I don’t see it happening in the January transfer window as the main speculation is for him to move to Milan and Barcelona wouldn’t want to get their once the main man in front of them in a probably champions league encounter.
Realmadrid_rocks: if he does transfer to Milan I dont think he can face Barcelona play in the latter stages of CL becaose he will be cup tied.
Subhankar Mondal: I’m going to repeat what i said earlier on your other article.Great premise but i had to stumble through all the grammatical mistakes and overly wordiness.On the whole an interesting read.
“Far from it, it has only increased in density and intensity.”
seriously what is density?
“One and a half season ago, you would have been labeled a madman, a fit-only-for-the-asylum lunatic had you conceived the idea that Ronaldinho as to leave the Camp Nou cathedral ever. At the time he was the God of the religion of football in Catalonia.”
enough said
he has lost nothing greatness does not just disapare in one season.messi benefits hughly from the attention ronnie recieves on the pitch.he is the most marked man in the primeira and no matter how good you are you can not always beat other top quality defenders of which there are plenty in spain.
as for going to england at his age it may not be worth a club taking him to a new league next year it would take at least a season to adopt and by that stage he will be to old for the likes of arsenal and man u and idont think chelsa could accomadiate another midfielder.plus i do not beleive he could cope with the pace of the premiership which is far above that of spain.
“One and a half season ago, you would have been labeled a madman, a fit-only-for-the-asylum lunatic had you conceived the idea that Ronaldinho as to leave the Camp Nou cathedral ever. At the time he was the God of the religion of football in Catalonia.”
No grammatical mistake in this except that it ought to have been Ronaldinho WAS to leave the Camp Nou….. The missing of the letter W was actually a typing error and I guess this is apparent to even a kid! Well, the English language has evolved over the years and you do not find people speaking Queen’s English nowadays too often. And if you go through the columns at Guardian or the Times or any major newspapers, you would come across similar techniques.
Sorry razahead, but I do find you accusations without any basis.
Is there actually a clause for teams not allowed to field a player who they traded in the mid season transfer window to play against his former team?I’ve seen it happening in england,with ashley cole not allowed to play arsenal in the first season of transfer but he was allowed after that.Am unsure of it being practiced in Europe though,would like some clarifications.
Razrhead : I agree with Subhankar Mondal that the language and the grammar in use is totally correct and this is what is used in editorial nowadays.Adding proverbs and phrases to emphasise the point is what’s used now.So I would suggest you to concentrate on the argument at hand instead of questioning the grammar of the writers/commenters.
realmadrid_rocks -
That is a very interesting point you raise. In fact the whole Tevez saga was based on that issue. You see, forbiding a player from playing against his former team in the transfer contract is called third-party interference. It is very, very illegal in the Premier League, but rather accepted in Spain where our beloved Real Madrid does this too often - they started doing this after Eto’o started scoring against them at every opportunity and Portillo is victim of this stupidity.
Ashley Cole was not forbidden to play against Arsenal - or at least we do not know about such a deal because the player was ‘injured’ when the Arsenal games came along. To sumarize: it happens in Spain and it is legal there, but not in England (points decdution as punishment); I do not know about Italy or other major leagues but I also know that it is illegal to do this between clubs from different associations (Barcelona to Milan, for example).
NB. It is illegal in England for a loaned player to play against his actual club for fear of conspiracy.