imagine going from being the best footballer in the world to a prison cell in another country this is the entire story of Ronaldinho and his rise to fame was against the [Music] odds growing up for Ronaldinho was tough his parents were poor he was born on March 21st in Porto alri in Brazil and his dad shael morera was a former pro who had to retire early after injuries his mom sold cosmetics and later became a nurse despite the challenges they faced early on the family remained very close and the reason for that was football Ronaldinho
and his brother Roberto AI always trained with their dad and pretty soon Roberto had the chance to take the family out of poverty grel had been looking at him and in the end offered him a lavish 2-year contract that gave him a new house and a fresh start quickly Roberto moved his family out of poverty and into the new home but just as they were about to celebrate everything came crashing down 1989 the year Roberto story ended and Ronaldo's story began 2 months before Ronaldo's birthday they came back home one afternoon and discovered the shocking
news their dad shaal morera was found unconscious in the family swimming pool so they quickly rushed him to the hospital but in the end was too late he died in a coma Roberto's story now shifted him trying to step in following his dad's death and for Ronaldinho what he didn't know was that this sad event would push him to becoming one of the greatest players in the game's history football now became Ronaldo's only focus and he was gifted at it by 13 he became so good he even scored 23 goals in a single game numbers
like this led National Youth team Scouts to come to watch his games and in 1997 he got the call up that would Kickstart his career he made the Brazil under 17 World Cup team to Egypt it didn't just end there for Ronaldinho because once again his series of impressive performances led him to bagging the player of the tournament award and shortly after Gro Came Calling and it was clear now that Ronaldinho was destined to finish the story his brother had started years back he signed for cremel and made his debut in the 1998 kopa libertadores
even though he had just one goal and one assist in 10 games Ronaldinho's game was never about the numbers anytime he had the ball fans were always on the edge of their seats waiting to see what he do next by 1999 Ronald Deno had become so good that now everyone knew he was ready to make the next big step in his career he was invited to link up with the national team to compete in the confederation cup and once again he was the star of the show Brazil came in second place losing to Mexico in
the final but with his six goals and five assists in just five games Ronaldinho baged the Golden Ball award for being the best player and the top scorer award too getting back to Brazil even Ronaldinho himself would have known that he was destined for something big and by 2001 his journey to Europe was about to take full flight PSG was the first European team to snag him and his first season was decent he backed 13 goals and seven assists in 40 games but it was his lifestyle off the pitch that grabbed him the headlines in
Paris see at the time moving to a new city a new league and a new culture ronaldino loved to party he never stopped his teammates called him out for it but in his defense it's pretty hard to stay angry at a guy with skills like this by 2002 Ronald gen's form was enough to bag him a ticket to the world cup with a national team and he had an amazing tournament a goal and assist versus China in the second group stage game helped Brazil seal qualification and in the round of 16 versus Belgium he dropped
an assist to help the celisa win 2-n and qualify for the quarterfinals and it was at this stage that Ronald Deo did something that would be remembered for centuries Brazil was up against a star studded english team and just watching the talent on display a moment of Brilliance was going to be the difference between these two with Brazil needing someone to step up to the occasion Ronaldinho shocked the world he caught out David Seaman with this stunner from miles out add that to another assist later on and Ronaldinho's Brilliance help Brazil knock England out after
picking up two yellow cards he was suspended for the semifinals but played 85 minutes in the final has Brazil be Germany 2N and officially became champions of the world he done it joal Mora's kid from Porto allegri had won the World Cup he played one more season in France after this and by the end of 2003 a big European team had seen enough and were convinced Ronaldinho was ready to become the star man in a team they hoped would dominate for years he was now Barcelona's new star at Barca Ronaldinho took up the iconic number
10 Jersey and over the next 5 years that followed he was undoubtedly the best player in the world his skill comps at this time were so insane that he became the first human to hit a million views on YouTube the man could do everything at this point score goals and drop assists but the skills he invented every week had guys like me willing to bust our ankles just to try out the stuff he did it seemed for a long time like Ronaldinho would remain at Barca forever it was like his home and the fans loved
him there but at the end of the 20078 season Ronaldinho's career hit a big downturn and unfortunately for him this was the beginning of the end at the time his contract was up at Barca and with a player of his quality in the team you'd expect that the club would be hurrying to renew his contract but instead they refused and the reason was because his problems were back see guys Ronald Doo always looked happy on every match day but deep down he was battling depression ever since his father died it left a huge hole in
his heart no one else could fill and even though he loved the game so much his dad not being there to see him winning now always got to him and to escape these Deep Thoughts he turned to partying barca's new coach Pep Guardiola knew Ronaldinho's talent but he also had a young Superstar named lonel Messi coming through and seeing the Bond Messi and Ronaldinho had started to develop Guardiola knew the longer Ronaldinho stayed with his habits the more likely Messi was going to turn out like him so in the end he pushed for the club
not to renew his contract and that was it Ronaldinho and Barca were over after 94 goals and 70 assists in 207 matches including a balandor a Champions League two League titles and two Spanish super cups Ronaldinho was out but lucky for him another European giant had caught wind of his departure from Barca and they quickly made him an offer he simply couldn't refuse AC Milan and the team they had that year was like someone had hit an ultimate team glitch Paulo Maldini alesandro Nesta daa kuso Kaka David Beckham Clarence seedorf and now Ronaldinho all in
one team he got his performances up in the early months but as the season went on Ronald Dial's problems hit him hard again and this time it was worse it had now gotten so bad that the night before games Ronaldinho would go out partying and not even know the team he was playing up against next after missing out on national team selection Ronaldinho knew his time in Europe was almost over and by 2011 with one city a title in the bag he was ready to go home back in Brazil he bounced around Brown playing for
Flamingo Atletico Mino Kitaro and fluminense even going to play fots in India but by 2018 the spark was gone he decided to retire and now the one thing that gave him a temporary release from his troubles was gone ronaldino soon found himself going from hero to zero he was caught trying to enter pagay with a fake passport with his brother after authorities back home had seized his original one due to tax failure ERS and as a result pag jail time for 6 months the irony of this though is that it was in jail where Ronald
Deo truly became free he now had more time to himself committed to fixing his life up again and decided to let go of the hurt his dad's death had caused him he was released in August 2020 and today he's cleaned up well he's involved in business ventures like Nuki a sponsorship and development firm is the co-founder of foot cider and that helps with recruitment and football and thanks to his love for music has even set up a recording studio back home all of this is great progress but you know what I think his biggest achievement
is subscribeing the goal Zone like you're about to