@ronaldinho

Ba de ya say do you remember.

The original version of this article first appeared on theguardian.com. 

Ronaldinho. See? You’re smiling already. Just thinking about the things he did and the way he did them, the way he was, gets you giggling.

Look him up on YouTube and maybe you’ll fall for him all over again, a bit like all those defenders. Watch for long enough—it won’t take long—and you might even feel like standing to applaud, just like the Santiago Bernabeu did, an ovation for a Barcelona player, as if for all the rivalry they hadn’t so much been beaten by his genius as shared in it. Sergio Ramos was on the floor, they were on their feet. Cameras zoomed on a man in the north stand with a moustache and a cigarette hanging limp from his lip: Bloody hell, did you see what he just did?

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I saw David Seaman off his line, about five metres off. I aimed at the goal's general direction, though not the precise part of the goal where the ball would go.

All I wanted was for Seaman to look desperate and maybe trip on his way back!"

– Ronaldinho Gaucho's lob to fame against England in World Cup 2002 was rooted in the name of fun

Source: FourFourTwo

It’s a question that was asked a lot. What Ronaldinho did, no one else did. And it wasn’t just what he did; it was the way he made people feel. Nostalgia, memories, are about that: Not so much events but emotions. Watching Ronaldinho was fun, it made people happy. Those may be two of the most simple, childish words of all but they are the right ones. Football stripped right down to its essence: Happy, fun.

Funny, too.

There may never have been a player who made the game as enjoyable as Ronaldinho, in part because he played and it was a game. “I love the ball,” he said. One coach, he recalled, told him to change, insisting that he would never make it as a footballer, but he was wrong. It was because he played, because he enjoyed it, that he succeeded: the grin on his face was not just there after he won the league, the Champions League, the World Cup and the Ballon d’Or, it was there while he won them. It became contagious. “He changed our history,” Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernández said.

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I love watching Diego Maradona, including his warm-ups.

Maradona's skills, speed, technique, and everything are all a class above everyone else; but for me the most important thing is he's also the most playful, and for that reason alone I like him the most. I couldn’t do keepy-uppies with oranges like he did, though. My mother wouldn't allow me to waste food!"

– Ronaldinho credits Diego Maradona for his 'football to spread joy' mantra

Source: FourFourTwo

One Real Madrid director claimed that Madrid hadn’t signed him because he was “too ugly” and would “sink” them as a brand. “Thanks to Beckham, everyone wants to shag us,” he said. He, too, was wrong: everyone wanted to embrace Ronaldinho, enjoy him. The long, soul-glow hair, the goofy grin, that surfer’s “wave”, thumb and little finger waggling—a gesture so his, so symbolic of Barcelona’s revival that it was fashioned from foam and sold in the club shop.

An entire publicity campaign was built around him, the embodiment of joga bonito. He might not have been beautiful but his game was and no one was more attractive, a marketing dream Madrid missed. Almost a comedy cartoon character himself, he inspired the “BarcaToons” and on Spain’s version of Spitting Image his puppet giggled and laughed and repeated one word over and over: Fiesta! “I am like that,” he admitted.

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I barely noticed what was happening, I just scored and celebrated.

I found out later that Diego Maradona was the only other person at that time to have received the honour at Bernabeu. I'm so proud and twice as happy to share the experience of my hero in football; I made sure to tell him exactly that the next time we met."

– Ronaldinho and Diego Maradona were the only two Barcelona players to ever receive a standing ovation from Real Madrid fans for their El Clasico performance

Source: FourFourTwo

On the pitch, too, an extension of that expressiveness. “When you have the ball at your feet, you are free,” Ronaldinho wrote in an open letter to his younger self, repeating a mantra: Creativity over calculation. “It is almost like you’re hearing music. That feeling will make you spread joy to others. You’re smiling because football is fun. Why would you be serious? Your goal is to spread joy.” He said that was the way his father, a shipbuilder and football fan who worked weekends at Gremio’s ground, had told him to play. His older brother Roberto was at Gremio too. And then, growing up, there was Bombom, his dog. He also played.

Ronaldinho’s brother was his idol but he ended up better than him. He was better than anyone at the time: You genuinely wondered if he might end up better than anyone else ever. It didn’t last long enough for that but it lasted because he did things you’d never witnessed before, skills most never imagined let alone replicated, and that emotion remained. “His feet are so fast he can touch the ball four times in half a second. If I tried to do what he can do, I’d end up injuring myself,” Philippe Cocu said.

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The flip-flap is probably my favourite skill. I took it from Rivelino and adapted it my way.

I have many difficulties with a lot of things but a football ain't one."

– Ronaldinho on his signature move, the flip-flap

Source: FourFourTwo

For three years no one could match the wow, the wonder, the silliness, the jaw-dropping, laugh-out-loud daftness of it all. The back-heels, step-overs and rubber ankles, the power too, the change of pace, the passes without looking. The passes with his back, for goodness sake. The free-kicks over the wall, round the wall and under it. Nutmegs, lobs, bicycle kicks, everything.

An advert featuring Ronaldinho showed him ambling to the corner of the penalty area, pulling on new boots, flicking a ball into the air and keeping it there. Strolling around the area, he volleys the ball towards goal. It hits the bar and comes straight back to him, he controls it on his chest, swivels and volleys it goalwards. Again, it hits the bar and comes back. He controls it again and, still without letting it drop, hammers it goalwards a third time. For a third time, it thuds off the bar and sails straight back. Without letting the ball drop, he strolls back to where he started, sets it down and smiles. On the boots is stitched the word “happiness”.

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Lionel Messi was shy but so, so special—even then I knew he's going to be a better player than me someday.

When I first joined up with the Brazil national team, Ronaldo Nazario embraced and helped me so much. I wanted Leo to have that and tried my best to pay it forward."

– Ronaldinho mentored and would pass the Barcelona No 10 jersey on to Lionel Messi; the rest is history

Source: FourFourTwo

It is quite astonishing; it is also a fake, a montage. Or was it? There was a debate. You didn’t know—and that was the point, the measure of him. The fact that anyone could even begin to believe that such a nonchalant demonstration of mastery might be genuine was eloquent—and only with Ronaldinho would they. That didn’t happen, no, but the Bernabeu ovation did. So did the shot thundering in off the crossbar against Sevilla—at 1.20am. The goal against Milan. That toe-poke against Chelsea. “It’s like someone pressed pause and for three seconds all the players stopped and I’m the only one that moves,” he said.

The Brazilian legend Tostao claimed: “Ronaldinho has the dribbling skills of Rivelino, the vision of Gerson, the spirit and happiness of Garrincha, the pace, skill and power of Jairzinho and Ronaldo, the technical ability of Zico and the creativity of Romário.” Above all he had one, very special ability: He made you smile.

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Making Ricardo Carvalho 'dance' before scoring past Chelsea in Champions League 2004/05, yes that was something.

Ultimately, goals are about the moments you're living in. I'm glad I have a few of them to remember."

– Ronaldinho might have been leapfrogged by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo for goals scored but he will always remain in his own league in terms of quality

Source: FourFourTwo

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