That's essentially Vickery's take as well: http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/futebolbrasil/id/912?cc=5901 Ronaldinho is more concerned with living his life than winning trophies, and you know what? That's ok as far as I'm concerned, more power to him. The only frustrating thing is that the expectation of greatness probably puts enough pressure on him to keep playing and gives enough fans the illusion that he will return to his peak. I'm happy with the peak he had, even though I wish we had more.
Greetings from Rio!! The most amazing situation I have ever seen when the game ended against Raja Casablanca. When the whistle blew, all of the Casablanca players ran towards Ronaldinho, started hugging him, kissing him, and one even bent down on his knees to make a prayer while another player tried desperately to take off his shoes for keepsake. And this after Casablanca had beaten Galo bad. I have only seen that with one other player -PELE. The amount of respect and love Ronaldinho brings where ever he goes, in any part of the world, is amazing. I will always love Ronaldinho. The topic of Ronaldinho's return to the NT was always a very heated and controversial one on these threads, especially with Vickery. But... I will always cherish everything Ronaldinho has done for our country and NT. And I love partying with him, his entourage, and his brother!! FELIZ NATAL!
Non stop drinking, dancing, laughing all night long in his own blocked out room of the restaurant filled with 100 of the most gorgeous mulatas, and 50 of his closest friends including his bother Assis. Just a blast!
Goes without saying money is a massive influence. Surely Ronaldinho would be lucky to have 1/10 of those girls with him without all that fame. I bet Ronaldinho doesn't get many kisses off them hah. How many times you been partying with R10 and his entourage?
Many times in Rio when R10 was playing at meu querido Mengao. His favorite places were the second floor in a restaurant of Mercado Do Peixe as well as Porcao Barra. As a comandante da torcida Raca, we sure miss R10 and his entourage at the Camarote of Baile Vermelho e Preto during Carnaval! Money is definitely a massive influence...I doubt were he not R10 would those gorgeous mulatas accompany him. I still believe that extensive partying does affect performance of a player no matter who you are. But R10 is a great guy, I love him, and I am happy he signed another year with Galo and will be staying in Brasil. Wishing R10 and Assis the best of luck.
I don't think you get my point with Ronaldinho. My point of contention has always been the same, Ronaldinho was a party animal BEFORE he got to barcelona, and it was never a problem, until they had losing seasons, then it became.. oh he parties! OH NO IT'S BECAUSE HE WON EVERYTHING!!!! no he parties because he parties.. he always has always will. In Flamengo same exact thing happened, he partied and got third place in the Brasileirao and the team to the Libertadores. They get disqualified on the first round and he's blamed for it because of the party. So here.. at PSG - Parties, no injury, in shape at PSG - Parties, no injury, in shape almost gets benched for partying - sold at Barcelona - Parties, no injury, in shape at Barcelona - Parties, no injury, in shape - wins league at Barcelona - Parties, no injury, in shape - wins league + CL at Barcelona - Parties, injured middle of the year and once again at the end of the year, out of shape at Barcelona - Parties, spends most of the year in and out with injury and riding bench, out of shape Must be that partying that did him in...
I am sorry--but his form was hurt because of how in bad shape he was at Barcelona towards the end. He lacked that 'spark' he had when he was shredded.
You know you hit rock bottom when the PRESIDENT of the club goes directly to your house and says you're off the team.
Sorry, but you don't know the extent of the partying throughout his years. Yes he has always done it, but maybe (and actually probably in my opinion) he started partying more in his last 2 years after his accolades. To the point, and you see it the comment in the video, that it affected his training habits. I understand what you are saying ... that it becomes and easy scape goat excuse when things go bad. And while I can't say for sure that the partying increased in his last years at Barca, you can't say for sure it wasn't either. All we can do is make some educated conclusions with some anecdotal comments / evidence. In a video that is 7 years after the fact, and not Ronaldinho related mind you we have people in the club saying: - The only player in the team with drive was Puyol - Ronaldinho partying was getting crazy - His training habits were bad (sleeping in the gym comment) Then we have the physical evidence of him getting out of shape before being injured. Then he got extremely out of shape in 2008 (benefit friendly in Venezuela). You can't say that this conclusion is outrageous.
Here is my problem with that theory, we are assuming he is partying harder after his CL championship and ignoring this piece of evidence (which everyone always chooses to ignore) He had major problems with partying while in PSG, he didn't win any titles in PSG his coach tried to get rid of him and bench him in PSG due to his nightlife. He missed practices and didn't show up to play against smaller clubs. Then Ronaldinho wins the World Cup and becomes a huge target for international transfers gets transfered to Barcelona. With a stacked team they win tournaments... but like most stacked teams, you can't win forever... That first really bad year for Barcelona, Everyone was hurt.. absolutely everyone! but Ronaldinho who even after he did get hurt kept coming back to keep his team afloat. Then he got scapegoated since it was the easiest target. All I'm saying is that all along he was partying this hard. During his title runs is where he had a kid with a "dancer", that's how hard he was partying.
I'm not disputing he would have been a better professional if it wasn't for his partying, all I'm saying is, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck... it's a duck Ronaldinho is who he is, he has partied all of his life during the good times at a club and during the bad times at a club, when people change their opinions about his partying because of results on the field trying to say he was a Swan and now he's a duck it's when I have problems.
That's a good point about PSG. But I guess only someone with first hand exposure to those years could tell how his partying affected his training habits from 02-07.
How about somebody with first hand experience in Flamengo? Because Ronaldinho got blamed for that first round drop from Flamengo because of his parties, and I say he was partying the same when he was being praised for having Flamengo go to the Libertadores.
For me that's way past his prime and besides the point. I'd agree with the statement above at Flamengo. But I thought the scrutiny on his bohemian life was there from the start at Flamengo. My observational analysis of his on field performance is much better at Barca because I watched basically every game from his arrival.
I guess we need a PSG fan to say how were his off-field antics and his constant fighting with the coach perceived.
I can agree that Fernandez was probably much stricter than Rijkard. For Fernandez it probably didn't matter if the player performed on the field. He had to respect the training rules. In Barca may things were a bit more lenient. Although I can say without a doubt, that Ronaldinho showed up for every game ready to play. I don't mean Romario type ready when he could still decide a game with minimal effort as you could tell he was just walking around waiting to pounce and when he was really into the game.
Partying isn't a problem until it affects your abilities on the field. Romario knew how to make it work, but Ronaldinho and Ronaldo both fell to partying and bad habits off the field.