Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho (born March 21, 1980, Porto Alegre, Brazil) is a former football (soccer) player who played for Brazil and multiple clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain, FC Barcelona, and AC Milan. He is widely considered one of the greatest players of all time and was renowned for his creativity, dribbling skills, and entertaining style of play. Ronaldinho has won the FIFA World Player of the Year award, the Ballon d’Or, the FIFA World Cup, the Copa América, the UEFA Champions League, the Copa Libertadores, and the Confederations Cup.

Early life

Ronaldinho was born Ronaldo de Assis Moreira in Vila Nova, a neighborhood of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. His mother Miguelina Elói Assis dos Santos was a door-to-door salesperson, and his father João da Silva Moreira worked as a shipyard worker while playing amateur football. His older brother Roberto was regarded as a promising young player. When Roberto signed with local club Grêmio, the club provided the family a villa, improving their living conditions. However, the family’s fortunes changed again in 1989, when his father died of a heart attack.

Ronaldinho started playing at an early age, spending much of his childhood in futsal, a small-sided indoor version of the sport played with fewer players on a smaller playing surface. The fast-paced nature of futsal helped him develop ball control, quick feet, improvisation, and dribbling techniques, including signature moves such as the “elastico” and no-look passes, that would define his playing style and make him world famous. He received the nickname Ronaldinho (“little Ronaldo”), a reference to his small stature, in the youth teams he played in. The nickname would stick in international football as there was already a player named Ronaldo when Ronaldinho made it to the Brazil national team.

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Club career

In 1998 Ronaldinho made his debut with Grêmio, quickly establishing himself as one of Brazil’s most promising young talents. In more than three seasons for the club, he made 73 appearances and scored 27 goals. In 1999 he helped the club win the inaugural Copa Sul-Minas trophy.

European clubs saw Ronaldinho’s potential and were keen to enlist him. British club Arsenal expressed interest in him in 2001 but were unable to sign him because of British work permit rules of the time. Eventually, with his brother Roberto as his agent, Ronaldinho joined French club Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for a five-year contract worth €5 million (about $6 million at the time). He scored 25 goals in 77 games for PSG, but his tenure was marred by disciplinary issues and spats with PSG coach Luis Fernandez. At the end of the 2002–03 season, Ronaldinho expressed interest in moving to another club, and joined FC Barcelona in 2003 for €30 million (about $33 million). The transfer marked the beginning of the most successful period of his club career.

Ronaldinho appeared 207 times for Barcelona, scoring 98 goals. He was part of the teams that won La Liga in 2005 and 2006, as well as the Spanish Super Cup in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, Barcelona won the UEFA Champions League with a star-studded team that included Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Samuel Eto’o, and Lionel Messi. During his stint at Barcelona, Ronaldinho was named FIFA World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005; he also won the Ballon d’Or in 2005 and the UEFA Best Player in Europe award in 2006. He has been widely credited with turning around Barcelona’s fortunes and making them one of the top clubs in Europe. In a 2005 game against arch-rivals Real Madrid, played at the latter’s stadium, Ronaldinho scored two goals in a 3–0 win and received a standing ovation from Real Madrid fans, a tribute previously only accorded to a few visiting players, including Diego Maradona. Argentine football great and then-FC Barcelona player Lionel Messi praised Ronaldinho in a 2013 interview.

Ronaldinho was responsible for the change in Barça. It was a bad time and the change that came about with his arrival was amazing. In the first year, he didn’t win anything, but people fell in love with him. Then the trophies started coming and he made all those people happy. Barça should always be grateful for everything he did.

Ronaldinho’s last two seasons at Barcelona were marked by injuries and a decline in form. In 2008 he joined Italian club AC Milan on a three-year contract worth €21 million (about $33.5 million at the time). He scored 26 goals in 95 appearances for the club and helped AC Milan win the Serie A in 2011.

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Ronaldinho moved back to Brazil in 2011, playing for the club Flamengo and scoring 28 goals before moving to Clube Atlético Mineiro in 2012. He scored 27 goals for the latter and helped them win their first Copa Libertadores title in 2013. In 2014 he moved to Mexican club Querétaro before returning to Brazil the following year for a brief spell with the club Fluminense, the final club he played for before retiring.

International career

Ronaldinho started representing Brazil at an early age. He joined the U-17 team in 1997, helping Brazil win the FIFA U-17 World Championship that year. He also played for Brazil at the U-20 and U-23 levels before earning his first senior-team call-up.

Ronaldinho made his senior debut for Brazil in 1999 in a friendly game against Latvia. He was part of the squad for the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup, in which Brazil finished runner-up. He was one of the standout performers of the tournament, finishing as the joint top goal scorer for the tournament, and winning the Golden Ball, given to the best player. He capped off a breakthrough year by helping Brazil win the 1999 Copa América, his first title with the senior national team.

Ronaldinho was part of the Brazil squad that won the 2002 FIFA World Cup, and scored two goals in the tournament, including a notable goal via a long-range free kick that helped Brazil get past England in the quarterfinal. He added a FIFA Confederations Cup title to his list of achievements when Brazil won the event in 2005.

Ronaldinho was not named for Brazil’s Copa América campaigns in 2004 and 2007 and failed to impress in their 2006 FIFA World Cup campaign, where they lost to France 1–0 in the quarterfinals. He represented Brazil in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, helping Brazil win the bronze medal.

Ronaldinho was not included in Brazil’s squads for the 2010 and 2014 FIFA World Cups. His last appearance for the national team was in a friendly versus Chile in 2013. He ended his international career with 33 goals in 97 games for his country.

Retirement and personal life

Ronaldinho signed up for the Indian Premier Futsal League in 2016, playing for the Goa 5s, and played for the Delhi Dragons in 2017. That year he returned to FC Barcelona in an ambassadorial role. He formally announced his retirement from football in 2018.

Beyond football, Ronaldinho has appeared in various forms of media and advertising, including Nike, Pepsi, and Gatorade. In addition to endorsing several global brands, he graced the covers of the video games FIFA 06 and FIFA 07. He has also appeared in several documentaries and music videos, mostly playing himself. He was the subject of an eponymous comic strip created by Brazilian comic artist Mauricio de Sousa.

In March 2020 Ronaldinho and his brother were arrested in Paraguay after entering the country with passports that were modified. They spent one month in prison and four months under house arrest. They were released in August that year. In 2025 Ronaldinho presented the men’s Ballon d’Or award to Ousmane Dembélé.

Ronaldinho’s son João Mendes de Assis Moreira (born 2005) is also a footballer, who has played for the youth teams of several clubs, including the British team Hull City’s U-21 side.

In June 2026, more than a decade after his retirement, Ronaldinho signed a marketing contract with third-tier Italian club Ravenna FC.