Ronaldo De Assis Moreira is 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. He was born on 21 March 1980 in Porto Alegre in Brazil.
He is considered one of the best players of his generation and regarded by many as one of the greatest of all time. He won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d'Or. A global icon of the sport and an exponent of the "Joga Bonito" style of play, he was renowned for his technical skills, creativity, dribbling ability and accuracy from free-kicks, his use of tricks, feints, no-look passes and overhead kicks, as well as his ability to score and create goals.
Here are some interesting facts that you may not know about the Brazilian legend
He once scored every goal in a 23-0 win
Ronaldinho's talent wasn't really hard to spot. At the tender age of 13, he knocked 23 goals aside in his local youth league which resulted in his first brush with the media. Before he starred for Brazil in the u-17 world cup he was selected in the Gremio youth squad. While he never achieved the same feats in his professional career, he can certainly be proud of his efforts as he went on to score multiple hat-tricks for both club and country.
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His Nike commercial was the first youtube video to reach 1 million views.
In 2005 Nike launched an advertisement featuring Ronaldinho where we saw him trying on a new pair of boots before smashing the crossbar four times without letting the ball touch the ground. The advertisement was described by Nike as the video that “broke the internet”, and it was later confirmed as the first video to reach 1 million views on Youtube. While there was much speculation regarding the authenticity of the video, we can call agree that Ronaldinho’s juggling skills were second to none. Now more than 10 years old, Nike celebrated the anniversary of the video by releasing a remastered version of the video along with a limited edition line of “Golden Touch” boots.
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Ronaldinho loves his cars
It is not unusual for rich athletes to drive fancy cars, but Ronaldinho’s collection of luxurious rides takes it to the next level. Among the cars in his collection are an Audi Q7, a Hummer 2 and a $1.3 million Bugatti Veyron, the latter being one of the fastest cars on the planet with a top speed of 253 miles per hour, a W16 engine and 1001 horsepower. With a net worth of $90 million, we wonder if Ronaldinho will continue to add to his collection as part of his birthday celebrations.
Ronaldinho was applauded by Real Madrid fans at the Bernabeu
In 2005, at Bernabeu in a match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, Ronaldinho became the first Barcelona player since Diego Maradona who was applauded by the Real Madrid fans at Bernabeu. Ronaldinho was in dazzling form on the day and destroyed Galactico's defence. As a sign of respect to Ronaldinho, Real Madrid fans stood up and applauded the Brazilian after he ran through the Madrid defense to score his second goal and put Barcelona 3-0 up.
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Awards
With Barcelona, he won La Liga twice, the UEFA Champions League in 2006, and accumulated numerous individual awards, including the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2004 and 2005 and the Ballon d’Or in 2005. Ronaldinho is the only footballer in history to win all 9 major trophies.
A six-figure loss for drinking Pepsi
Ronaldinho lost a $750,000 sponsorship deal with Coca-Cola after he was pictured with rival beverage Pepsi at a press conference. While the deal was intended to run through the 2014 World Cup, it was canceled less than a year after it was signed due to a breach of contract. While it is most likely the star forward was only pictured with the drink as Pepsi were the sponsor of his then club Atletico Mineiro, Coca-Cola wasn't happy and ended the contract shortly after.
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Other facts
Ronaldinho’s football abilities started to blossom when he was eight years old, and he was given the nickname Ronaldinho because he was always the youngest and smallest player in youth club matches
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