Return of the star
A dip in Ronaldinho’s performance looks temporary. Is the player ready to shine again?
Since World Cup 2006, the star of a certain Brazilian footballer has been on the wane. Yet it didn’t come as a surprise when Ronaldinho won the Player of the Decade award conferred by World Soccer magazine. While the award might just seem meaningless, it comes at a time when Ronaldinho’s star is on the rise again.
Since 2007, when the buck-toothed Brazilian swapped the colours of Barcelona for AC Milan, the magic seems to have gone missing.
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are two of the best players in the world — a title conferred on Ronaldinho only three years ago. At that time, he had the Midas touch and whatever he tried, used to work.
Defenders seemed to be in awe of him and he used to terrorise them no end. Jog your memory to bring up that Champions League game in which Ronaldinho scored the goal against Chelsea which left everyone spellbound. With three defenders surrounding him, he just did a little jig and caressed the ball into the back of the net. Such was his brilliance that you knew if he was stopped, the match could easily be won by the other team.
But the disappointment of 2006 World Cup hit him hard. A below-average 2007 saw him leaving Barcelona and relinquishing the crown of the best player in the world.
But it seems like he has finally turned a corner with AC Milan. He has been giving some great performances. He hasn’t again scaled the summits of greatness he achieved in the middle of the decade with Barcelona, when he was by far the best and most skillful footballer on the planet — and he never will.
The chance of this 29-year-old metamorphosing into a mature player cannot be discounted. He is a team player, and Milan’s resurgence in the Serie A is largely down to the maturity this Brazilian has shown.
It’s too early to say whether there will be a resurgence of the old magic of Ronaldinho. But with him showing consistent and good form, it is likely that he will be in the Brazilian squad for the 2010 World Cup.
And a nightmare that began at a World Cup four years ago might just turn into a dream. After all,as they say, form is temporary, but class is permanent! Ronaldinho still has it in him to prove the adage true.