Ronaldinho

Ronaldo de Assis Moreira born 21 March 1980 commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho or simply Ronaldinho is a Brazilian retired professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder but was also deployed as a winger Considered one of the best players of his generation and regarded by many as one of the greatest of all time Ronaldinho won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon dOr A global icon of the sport he was renowned for his technical skills creativity dribbling ability and accuracy from freekicks as well as his use of tricks feints nolook passes and overhead kicks Ronaldinho made his career debut for Grêmio in 1998 At age 20 he moved to Paris SaintGermain in France before signing for Barcelona in 2003 In his second season with Barcelona he won his first FIFA World Player of the Year award as Barcelona won the 200405 La Liga title The season that followed is considered one of the best in his career as he was integral in Barcelona winning the 200506 UEFA Champions League their first in fourteen years and another La Liga title giving Ronaldinho his first career double receiving the 2005 Ballon dOr and his second FIFA World Player of the Year in the process After scoring two spectacular solo goals in the first 200506 El Clásico Ronaldinho became the second Barcelona player after Diego Maradona in 1983 to receive a standing ovation from Real Madrid fans at the Santiago Bernabéu Following a secondplace La Liga finish to Real Madrid in the 200607 season and an injuryplagued 200708 season Ronaldinho suffered a decline in his performancesoften put down to a decrease in dedication and focus having achieved so much in the sportand departed Barcelona to join AC Milan where he won the 201011 Serie A He returned to Brazil to play for Flamengo in 2011 and Atlético Mineiro a year later where he won the 2013 Copa Libertadores before moving to Mexico to play for Querétaro and then back to Brazil to play for Fluminense in 2015 Ronaldinho accumulated numerous other individual awards in his career he was included in the UEFA Team of the Year and the FIFA World XI three times each and was named UEFA Club Footballer of the Year for the 200506 season and South American Footballer of the Year in 2013 in 2004 he was named by Pelé in the FIFA 100 list of the worlds greatest living players In his international career with Brazil Ronaldinho earned 97 caps and scored 33 goals and represented his country in two FIFA World Cups After debuting with the Seleção by winning the 1999 Copa América he was an integral part of the 2002 FIFA World Cupwinning team starring alongside Ronaldo and Rivaldo in an attacking trio and was named in the FIFA World Cup AllStar Team As captain he led his team to the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup title and was named man of the match in the final He also captained the Brazil Olympic team to a bronze medal in mens football at the 2008 Summer Olympics From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia