Article:Ronaldinho's Secrets Revealed..

Now we all heard of what happened this summer with Ronaldinho] as he pushed for a transfer to none other than Italian Giants AC Milan, even though he was considered one of the most payed players of all time with an astonishing 8.5 million Euro's a year, he had fallen out with the management and the media in Catalonia, he was under constant pressure all the time were some of his reasons why he didn't play the second half of the season with Barcelona under the speculation of injury.

But as I read throughout the year I wrote down some snippets of different quotes from  managers, club presidents and friends of Ronaldinho and I think I believe what had made his Falling out occur. Here are some:



Joan Laporta

“In the spring of 2007, after a game against Real Zaragoza, we began to see some changes in his attitude from certain players that started to affect the squad,” the club president said, alluding to the incident in Zaragoza where after the game at La Romareda, Ronaldinho and Deco did not board the team bus to return the hotel, choosing instead to get on a private car and made several “stops” along the way.



“In the end, we spoke to him to him to find out what he was thinking and he said to us he wanted to stay and become the best again.

“We believed in him because of all he had done for the club, but it turned out that despite having so many people supporting him, Ronaldinho was absolutely alone,” Laporta elaborated.

Txiki Begiristain

“Everything began to unravel when he returned from the (2006) World Cup. We noticed the changes in the little details: he was not beating players in one on one’s, he was getting injured, he was easily affected by things happening around him, and he was struggling to return to the national team,” the technical director offered.

Sandro Rossell

“He (Ronaldinho) is responsible for all his actions. Perhaps he is not the only one accountable, but he is the main culprit, because he is the one who shoots, runs and jumps… not any one else,” said the former vice president, who is largely considered the man who made Ronnie the marketable icon he is today after signing him to an extravagant sponsorship contract with Nike.

Juan José Castillo

“There came a point in his life where he realized that he did not belong amongst the group. When your life is being run by fifty people from all over the world, it is normal that this happens to you,” theorized Castillo, a close friend of Ronaldinho who helped him settled into his new surroundings when he first arrived at Barcelona.

“He became more disconnected, more reserved and instead of being with friends who would critique him or tell him things aren’t going well, he chose to surround himself with people who would only say nice things to him.

“He was also going out a lot at night, although initially, it was only to release stress or burn off the post-match adrenaline, but soon it became a lifestyle and a habit,” he detailed.

Edmílson

“Perhaps people at the club, from the doctors to the president, to the managers and fellow players could have done more to help him,” the former Barca player, currently at Villarreal, confessed.

“In Barcelona, there are a lot of bad influences that can harm a player and perhaps he did not have the will to stay away from them.”

Eusebio Sacristan 

“We spoke a lot to Ronaldinho. We tried to help him by telling him we were all behind him, but we were never sure what he thought because he never expressed everything that he felt,” revealed the former assistant to then-coach, Frank Rijkaard.



Many times Ronaldinho was accused of extreme partying and other immoral acts, but it all started out as a way of relieving stress and turned into a habit, as stated above, we might never know exactly what happened but many other players of that era have left like, Deco and Edmilson. But another like Etoo was rumored to be looking for pastures new but his immense price tag has kept him at the Nou Camp which turned out to be a smart move by the Barcelona Crowd.

In the End, Ronaldinho has found a bit of himself in Italy but he still needs to prove that great players might fall, but eventually will stand up stronger.