Finally after a week of some of the worst news in modern times a bit of humor returned to our world. On Monday Brazilian legend Ronaldinho spoke to the media about the possibility of coming to play in MLS. Stop if you have heard this story before.
In an interview with FutBolMLS.com Ronaldinho spoke at lengths about the league, some of the top players from the 2000’s playing there, and that he maybe possibly might be interested in coming here. In the interview he said, “It’s a league that’s growing, and the United States is a country I love. It motivates every single player in the world to want to come here because everyone wants to be where the best players are.”
Now if you think you have heard this song and dance before, you have. In what seems like an annual tradition between Ronaldinho and the soccer press rumors and veiled quotes have popped up throughout the past five or six years of the 2005 Ballon d’Or winner coming to MLS. Much like the sun rising from the East, Santa Claus dropping in on Christmas, and people eating turkey on Thanksgiving chances are there will be some rumor about Ronaldinho coming to MLS.
Here is the one little wrinkle to this weird courtship: Ronaldinho can no longer play the game of football. Oh sure he can kick a ball around, do a few tricks, and maybe score a goal in a blue moon. But this is not the Ronaldinho whose wizardry on the pitch drew comparisons with the likes of Pele, Beckenbauer, and Cruyff.
This Ronaldinho is a Ronaldinho who is 35 whose best playing days are no long over.This is a Ronaldinho who struggled to maintain his form with Atletico Mineiro, was a bust in Liga MX with Queteraro, and has struggled to produce anything of note with Fluminense. While his play on the pitch might have declined his appetite for the night life has not. While there is nothing wrong champaigning and campaigning it is difficult for an older player to keep up with that sort of lifestyle.
Aside from Ronaldinho’s excesses of the pitch it would be difficult seeing him doing well in MLS’ style even if he was fully healthy. Ronaldinho has always done better in leagues where there isn’t as much physicality and the game operates more as a free-flowing system. On a comparable level he struggled at Queteraro playing in a similar style and could not keep up.
It is nice to hear that Ronaldinho wants to still play soccer and given how far he has already fallen off so much he probably can continue playing wherever he wants to without further damaging his career. But this is not a move that would benefit MLS. Would he sell a few T-Shirts, put a few fans in seats, and probably make a fan of mid-2000’s Barcelona happy? Sure. But MLS has a very bad stigma of being labeled a retirement league and it does not always help with their image both here in North America and abroad.
Now if only one of his former teammates from Brazil actually owned a team in North America that he could play for…
