WORLD SOCCER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
RONALDINHO
2005
Brazilian baller…Ronaldinho
Fantasy for real
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f Ronaldinho carries on as he is, we will soon be putting him among the all-time greats. A little while back, I received an e-mail with an internet link and the simple message: “The most amazing thing ever.” The link takes you to footage that has just been used for an advert. In it, Ronaldinho ambles over to the penalty area at Camp Nou, where a man with a small metallic suitcase awaits. In the background, the Brazilian’s team-mates are training, knocking a ball about among themselves, as he opens the case and pulls out a pair of gold encrusted boots. Ronaldinho thanks the man, laces up his new boots, flicks a football into the air and starts playing keepy-uppy. The footage is silent except for the soft sound of him gently tapping at the ball, not once allowing it to drop. Strolling around the edge of the penalty area, tracing the white line to the middle, the ball still in the air, he volleys it towards goal. The ball strikes the bar and comes straight back to him. He controls it on his chest, swivels and volleys it goalwards. Again, it hits the bar and travels in a long, true arc straight back to him, where he controls it again and, still without letting it drop, hammers it goalwards for a third time. And, for a third time, it thuds back off the bar and sails straight back to him. Ludicrous hat-trick completed, and completed so coolly you’d think he did it every day of the week, Ronaldinho
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PLAYER OF THE YEAR
retraces his steps back to the man with the case, still not letting the ball drop. He sits down, takes off his boots, pops them back in the case, nods his approval and smiles that smile: yeah, not bad. Not bad? It is, as the e-mail says, the most amazing thing ever. It is also a fake, a montage. It has to be. Doesn’t it? The friend who sent it reckoned the footage was genuine, others think that it wasn’t, it couldn’t possibly be. Could it? And that’s the point, the measure of Ronaldinho’s brilliance. That it was
something you vowed to get to the bottom of rather than simply dismissing spoke volumes. The very fact that anyone could even begin to believe that such an incredible and utterly nonchalant demonstration of skill could be genuine is telling – and only with Ronaldinho would they begin to believe it. The Brazilian has got people used to seeing things they have never seen before, skills they could never have imagined, flicks they never contemplated and can’t understand. Now it seems right. Now that they know him, would anyone dare
Football freak…one of a kind
