[0:00]Por onde você é respeitado, ninguém respeita não. É desde o primeiro minuto, desde a primeira bola, aqui e com tudo, gente. Vamos rezar um Pai Nosso, Ave Maria para que ninguém saia machucado, que tudo corra bem. Vamos embora, gente. For two years, two or three years, the best player on the planet. Played with a smile on his face. He'd done things on the football pitch that no one even contemplated trying. I've never seen anything like on a football pitch. Best goal I've ever seen. We were brilliant. We were three nil up. All right. We were flying. I'm looking around and you know quality. We got this. And he just got the ball on the edge of the box, done his hips. Let's talk about Ronaldinho. But what he bring on the pitch. For two years, two or three years, the best player on the planet. I read somewhere that Ronaldinho was a big influence on you. He plays with a smile on his face and then like he plays freely, doesn't he? So, um, I think everyone was Ronaldinho. How can you not? I mean, it's great play. Well, an extraordinary player, a different player, a player of a lot of imagination, a player that people would go to see and expect things from because he always came up with something different and made the audience enjoy a lot. A special player, a special player because of the box office draw he had, because of the things he did on the field, because of When he arrived to Paris was like when I really start to look football at the TV. I think I was like maybe nine, ten, this age. He was the one like, you know, all about fun and also scoring goals, doing assists, but He's a guy, he's a guy who inspired me, yes, not just me, but most Brazilians as well. He was a world champion when he came to Paris Saint-Germain. Hold on, he has a wonderful history in football, did did unprecedented things, reinvented football, played by So, it's a great pride for Ronaldinho to be Brazilian. I think he has been the most magical player I've seen in the history of football. I've seen him do things I haven't seen throughout my life in other players. For me, uh, a different player, the mag, no, it's magical, everything he's done, a genius. I think so. I believe Ronaldinho's football is the only player that I've seen in history that he could transform by by himself two clubs. He did it in Paris, he transformed it. He went to Barcelona in their one of the worst moments, he transformed it. He had an aura, an energy, a smile on his face that it was, it was impossible to be next to him and being in a bad mood, you know? And then he was, I never seen a talent like this in training and everything. He's like, how is this possible? Physically it's impossible to do certain things. Uh, it was unbelievable to play with him. This guy transcends football for me. Ronaldinho, the streets will never forget him, Reef. He's like, he is as strong as Essien. He played differently. He sort of he blew my mind playing against him because he had he had everything. Because culturally, he means so much for the football fans. Your favorite footballer was the great Ronaldinho. Who's as free, man? He looked like he enjoyed himself when he played and He's one of your idol. How how was that? My dad, he showed me all the people he kind of idolizes. And I always watch the videos. Yeah, I just enjoyed it and started to kind of idolize him. Have you tried to copy some dribbling and kills, many skills. This was one of the time where I was like shocked. I looked at him and I was like, Ronaldinho, he came in with his hair, bang, he had the band on, you know, big watch. He came and I was like, Ronaldinho, bro. Forget all of them in the dressing room. There was nothing forced about Ronaldinho. He was totally natural. It was all a joy for him. He loved playing football. He was always smiling at training. There were never any negative signals from him. The things that he did, they were natural. And maybe he didn't realize how important he was. But he really connected with us. He connected with everyone. And the fans came to the ground to see him. He was a player who really grabbed people. It was a joy to watch him and uh, he he he was one of the guys that made the public came to the stadium. It looked like he was always happy and content on the pitch and He hit it and it's bent off of his toe. And you know, you know, when you're playing, you play FIFA with the kids or something and the game glitches, like, cause the whole stadium went quiet. It's like everyone was just what happened there? What happened? Zidane, or Ronaldinho? Zidane. Ah, that's quite easy, isn't it? Do you know why though? Why? Cause Ronaldinho turned United down then. Oh, so it's still, it's still still a bit bitter. But both brilliant. Ronaldinho was sensational, isn't he? Some of the things he did, Didn't he get a stand ovation at the Bernabéu? Yes. Remember that? Yeah, yeah. He absolutely dismantled them too. But Zidane, wow. He was disgusting before then. Yeah, yeah, he's incredible. Yeah, Zidane. Zidane. This was one of the time where I was like shocked. I looked at him and I was like, Ronaldinho, he came in with his hair, bang, he had the band on, you know, big watch. He came and I was like, Ronaldinho, bro. Forget all of them in the dressing room. It's Ronaldinho. R10. We played two touch all the time. He's the best in the world. He would always put it at to the hip high. You can't move, you know, it's like. Happy guy. So I told him, I said, you're my idol. I love you. He said, don't worry, we're together now. We're same level. He's the nicest guy ever. You know what I did? I played in Hertha. He brought out his shoes, R10, the black ones with a little tongue. No one was allowed to wear them. No one. Only him because he had to present them on Sunday with Barcelona. I went to buy them in the shop. I played them on Saturday. Boss of Nike calling, are you crazy? In the Bundesliga. Why did you just wear him in the Bundesliga? Why? Because he was my hero. But I didn't know that he was scheduled to bring out the shoe on Sunday. They could have fined me 250,000. So they asked Ronaldinho if they should sue me and he said, Bundesliga is so small, no one saw it. What was great about him? I think when you when you watch Ronnie play back in the day, I mean, he's electrifying on every on every level.
[5:58]One of our first training sessions was in, uh, Korea, I think or or China. I'm not sure where we were at the time.
[6:08]And, um, the ball had just been played across to him and all he had to do was put it in the goal. And as as he's played across to him, I'm trying to defend it, so I've slid across. And as I'm sliding past, he just watches me like that with the biggest smile on his face and he just taps it in and I was like, oh God. Wow. So, so, yeah, so, uh,
[6:37]What was he laughing about? Don't know, never run out of him. He was mad, I.
[6:47]Ronaldo is like my idol growing up, so was he as good as he looked like in real life? Yeah. The best in training as well. Like in training, like when you had to, when you wanted to train, yes. And a lot of people say R9 and Ronaldinho, they just joked around here and there and then game day, incredible R9 was not always like off in training, but he just didn't have to do that much, because that was the way he played, he was a striker. So he would put you to sleep and then he would get the ball, do his thing. Ronaldinho was different. Ronaldinho was, um, he also played more from the wing side and his game was different. Much more involved of course with the ball than Ronaldo. Ronaldo, but the thing we don't know is that I think he's just, you know, the most complete player that I've played with, yeah, you're special, very special. Zidane or Ronaldinho? Because they both changed the game in their way. That's a tough one, but Ronaldinho is entertainment. Even if Zizu is in heart, you know, the way he plays, the Picasso. But Ronaldinho, he he danced on the pitch. Ronaldinho have the what about Cristiano? How many? Best ever. Ronaldinho makes you smile. Zidane like, you like inspire like Zizu is like going to the theater. They were like, how has he done that? How does he make it so effortless? It's beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. Whereas Ronaldinho makes you scream. He make you do the real, oh, oh my God. So where is Ronaldinho now? The man who made millions fall in love with football. Back in the 2000s, Ronaldinho was humiliating defenders at Barcelona and won the Ballon d'Or in 2005. He was the most entertaining footballer to exist, winning the Champions League and the World Cup. However, Ronaldinho never reached his full potential, as he spent much of his time partying. After retiring in 2015, things took a dark turn. He was arrested in Paraguay in 2020 for entering the country with a fake passport and spent a month in jail. Ronaldinho is now 45 years old. He's participating in charity football matches, has launched his own music and crypto projects. He's also still partying. Where would you rank Ronaldinho in football history? We said that we would incorporate Ronaldinho or Beckham or Thierry Henry. We had talks with the agent of Thierry Henry. He said, "No," at that time. We had talks with the agent, the brother of Ronaldinho at that time. And at the same time we were talking with the club, with Manchester United in order to find possibility to incorporate Beckham as a player of football club Barcelona. We reached an agreement with Manchester United. We signed an agreement. It was conditioned to the player, you know, to to reach an agreement with the agent. And we were waiting at that time for the answer. And the answer arrived after our elections, and he signed by Real Madrid. We incorporate Ronaldinho. That was one of our priorities, maybe the first one. And, I think that was good. At that time, uh, Ronaldinho was was a great player, but I think that he became the best player of the world in football club Barcelona.
[9:59]He muted the stadium. I've never heard it. The Stamford Bridge, everyone went quiet. It was like, unbelievable. He's so strong. Look, this is John Terry. I think he bounces JT here, look. He was the complete footballer, but his fire burned for a short time. What a player. I absolutely love him. We're at the World Cup. We're going to be playing against him. We were watching him in the stages before. I have a video running in my head of Rio laughing and giggling every time he got the ball. Just controlling the ball. Never mind doing anything with it. You were captivated, weren't you? But I thought we got to play against him. That's my center half. Are we going to be able to beat them? He had me just like, I was just transfixed. Every time he played around that time and beyond that, when he was at Barcelona in that period and he was just a joke of a footballer. Pass the ball with his back. You ever seen that before? The ball came into me, turned around, seeing he backed into someone. What's going on there? Prime Zidane or Prime Ronaldinho? Prime Ronaldinho. Really? Wow. I just think, listen, Zidane, the volley at Hampden Park against Bayern Leverkusen, unbelievable. And as a manager, unquestionably, what he achieved, Real Madrid, all those Champions League. But Ronaldinho, I mean, Ronnie, one of one of the most skilled guys I've ever ever seen. I remember him coming from Brazil for the first time. It was winter. I was just starting to to go and train for the team. I was just 18 years old. And I started to come it was Luis Fernandez at that time, the coach. And I remember the first training session was winter. He came from Brazil and, uh, it was snowing that day. He didn't want to come out. Uh, but then, uh, uh, the guy, the talent in training, in the game, and he reached his full potential in Barcelona, but we already consider his a different kind of thing. Italians say Fauri Classa, out of the league. He's on his own league. One of the most amazing skill player I've played with. Which one is your favorite, Ronaldinho or Messi? First of all, me as always, when I start to train with him in the beginning, it was normal. Who? Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho. Yeah, it was normal. But he coming to to the point where he said to you, yeah, yeah, when if you come too much, if you come to press to me, too close, too close, be careful. I'm going to make you make, you know, I said, nah. What are you talking about? No. But anytime I come close, he he did it. Yes. And I said, and I have to smash him because at that time at that period we were like a physical player, you know, me, Seidu Keita. So that's why we complete him in that period, Barcelona, you know, because when we play against physical team, we have couple of players there that can respond. When you go like technical, like the player who can make the difference with the control, the dribbling, and open up the games, you go into Iniesta, Xavi, Messi. And that was uh that was that, you know, and uh being there with Ronaldinho, it was that good to tell you, you have to be careful. And he when he tell you, he did it and he was incredible. Ronaldo, etc. Who stands out as the best player you managed? I think after Ronaldo, Van Basten. Uh, Maradona. Messi. And Ronaldo just behind this. But just just Brazilian, Brazilian Ronaldo. Cristiano. Cristiano is good players. They score goals. But these three players that I said, they have extreme imagination. Yeah. Ronaldinho, before Messi and Ronaldo, I think won the world player of the year or Ballon d'Or, whatever it was called in that era, uh, two or three times in a row, I think. But do you remember, though, he created more than anybody, the look-away pass, look one way and pass the other. His warm-ups were an entertainment in themselves, not since Paul Gascoigne had I seen such incredible joy of football warm-ups, but he also scored arguably the best goal I've ever seen, uh, for Barcelona at Stamford Bridge, uh, when he toe-poked it when there was no room from the edge of the penalty area. And Peter Cech told me afterwards, some time afterwards, that he didn't know that the ball was in the net. He didn't know it was a goal and he was still looking for it through the legs of everybody. He hadn't actually seen, uh, the shot. Uh, he was just an incredible player. There are football legends who are respected because they won. Others because they scored more goals than everyone else. But then, there was Ronaldinho. A player who made other professionals feel embarrassed in front of their own fans. Not because he was stronger, not because he was faster, but because sometimes it looked like he already knew what defenders were about to do before they even moved. Years later, players still talk about him differently. Thierry Henry once admitted that training with Ronaldinho at FC Barcelona felt unfair. Paolo Maldini said defending against him was chaos because Ronaldinho never repeated the same move twice. Even players who hated showboating quietly admitted something uncomfortable. Nobody could really prepare for him. That was the strange thing about Ronaldinho. Coaches spent entire weeks building defensive plans around him and sometimes he still destroyed those plans with one touch, one pass, one smile, one no-look movement that made experienced defenders freeze for half a second. And at the highest level of football, half a second is enough to end a match. But what did football players themselves actually say when they were asked about Ronaldinho? Not the media, not YouTube compilations, not nostalgic fans. The players who had to survive 90 minutes against him. Because for a brief period in the 2000s, many of them believed the same thing. Football had never seen anybody quite like him. Ronaldinho's career never followed the normal rules of greatness. Most legends built their reputation through discipline, structure and repetition. Ronaldinho built his through unpredictability. That was what terrified defenders. They could study Cristiano Ronaldo and prepare for his movement. They could analyze Lionel Messi and try to close passing lanes.
[16:16]But Ronaldinho played like someone improvising in real time. And yet the achievements were still overwhelming. He won the FIFA World Cup with Brazil. He became a Ballon d'Or winner. He carried Barcelona back to the top of European football after years of instability. At his peak, the entire atmosphere around the club changed because of him. Before Ronaldinho arrived, Barcelona were struggling emotionally and financially. After he arrived, players suddenly believed the club was special again. What made opponents respect him even more was the way he controlled matches without always needing statistics. Some players dominate through goals. Ronaldinho dominated psychologically. Full-backs became hesitant. Midfielders stopped pressing aggressively because they feared becoming part of the highlight reel. Defenders began backing away instead of stepping forward. That was rare at the elite level. Great defenders are trained to attack space with confidence. Ronaldinho made experienced professionals doubt themselves. Players from the Italian game especially spoke about this. Defenders in Serie A were known for tactical discipline and positional intelligence. Yet even there, Ronaldinho created panic because his rhythm constantly changed. Slow, fast, pause, spin, pass, fake shot, no look, touch. Opponents said the hardest part was that he played with joy, while everyone else was playing with pressure. And then there was the famous moment at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium. Real Madrid supporters standing and applauding a Barcelona player. That almost never happened. But that night, Ronaldinho humiliated one of the biggest clubs in the world so completely that even rival fans could not deny what they were watching. Inside locker rooms across Europe, players were already saying something unusual. Ronaldinho was not just effective. He made football feel impossible. What separated Ronaldinho from most superstars was the reaction he caused inside the game itself. Opponents did not talk about him like a normal footballer. They talked about moments when structure disappeared. Moments when experienced defenders suddenly looked lost. Thierry Henry once described training sessions at Barcelona almost like survival exercises. Players already knew Ronaldinho could embarrass defenders during matches. But teammates said he was sometimes even more dangerous in training because he played with total freedom. Tricks appeared without warning. Passes arrived from impossible angles. One second he looked relaxed, almost lazy. The next second the entire defense was broken apart. Even elite defenders admitted fear. John Terry spoke about how difficult it was to predict Ronaldinho because he never gave defenders visual clues. Most attackers lean their shoulders a certain way before passing or shooting. Ronaldinho could disguise everything until the final second. That hesitation destroyed defensive timing. But maybe the most revealing comments came from players who were themselves considered geniuses. Zinedine Zidane openly praised Ronaldinho's creativity. While Andrés Iniesta later admitted that Ronaldinho changed the emotional atmosphere of football at Barcelona. Younger players watched him and realized football could still be artistic at the highest level. Not robotic, not mechanical. That mattered because the early 2000s were becoming more tactical and controlled. Defensive systems were tighter. Space disappeared faster. Football was becoming organized to the point where creativity often felt restricted. Ronaldinho broke through that environment anyway. And players noticed. Not because he scored the most goals ever, not because he won the most trophies ever. But because he could make world-class professionals feel powerless while smiling the entire time. Years later, many defenders still say the same thing. Facing Ronaldinho was exhausting mentally. You were not only defending against skill, you were defending against imagination. And sometimes imagination is harder to stop than tactics. Today, when football players speak privately about the greatest talents they ever faced, Ronaldinho's name still appears with a different tone. Not always as the most complete player, not always as the most disciplined. But often as the one who made professionals feel like children watching football again. That is important. Because locker room respect is harder to earn than media praise. Inside football players recognize details ordinary fans never see. Balance, timing, body control, the ability to disguise intention. And Ronaldinho mastered all of it while making the game look effortless. Many defenders later admitted they left matches against him mentally exhausted because concentration alone was not enough. He forced opponents to react emotionally. Panic started appearing in experienced backlines. Even modern stars still speak about him almost romantically.
