What WUSA needs is...

[Adam Zebrowski]

http://www.europeanwomenssoccer.com

Ronaldos wife "Ronaldinha",signs for Atletico Madrid for $315,000 USD

Mrs Ronaldo in record transfer

Milene Domingues, aka Mrs Ronaldo, has signed for Atletico Madrid for a Spanish record fee of $310,000 (£200,000).

Domingues is a ball-juggling record-holder

The 22-year-old left Italian women's Serie A side Fiamma Monza to follow her husband to Spain after he signed for Real Madrid.

And she has now been snapped up by Real's local rivals for 10 times the previous Spanish record for a female player.

"Ronaldinha", as she has been dubbed by the Spanish media, is rated as one of the best female footballers in Europe.

The ex-model also holds the record for ball juggling, keeping a football off the ground with 55,197 touches.

According to her husband, she "plays like Zinedine Zidane".


Now that's publicity...

[Bombatta2]

Huh........... That is more money than ANY player in the WUSA gets paid, salarywise........

come to think of it, that's more than anyone in MLS, isn't it?.............

[DCUPopeAndLillyFan]

I think $310,000 was the transfer fee paid to Fiamma Monza, not Ronaldinha's annual salary. I guess Atletico is just trying to steal some of Real's thunder...

[cachundo]

If Atletico really wants to make waves, they'd sign Mr. Domingues . . . . . errrr . . . . . Clarence Seedorf. LOL

[Adam Zebrowski]

so $310,000 is the transfer fee...

I wonder what the highest one was, assuming this is the highest...

and who was counting all the touches, 55,000 is quite a lot, and I wonder how long it took....

the $310,000 tells you how much money a serious league will throw away for a publicity stunt...

I assume Mrs Ronaldha is Brasilian...

perhaps get her interested in a wusa career, with a little financing from her husband to help the league along??

[AndyMead]

The 310k is a transfer fee. Paid to buy the rights to sign a player to a contract. Usually the transfer fee isn't paid until the player and team come to their own contract terms. Additionally, the player usually gets 10-15% of any transfer fee. So she's picking up a nice $30k bonus :)

She is Brazilian, and she's only 22 years old. Apparently the juggling record is something she held, then broke again later. She's got mad skills.

I am unaware if she's ever played for the Brazilian nats. She's apparently good enough for the semi-pro womens leagues in Italy and Spain. Being Ronaldinha definitely brings it's own publicity angle. And with him at Real and her at Atletico, it could set up some interesting dinner conversations :p