BRAZIL/FILE: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: Ronaldinho leaves AC Milan and signs for Brazil's Flamengo

Record ID: 184011

  • Title: BRAZIL/FILE: FOOTBALL/SOCCER: Ronaldinho leaves AC Milan and signs for Brazil's Flamengo
  • Date: 12th January 2011
  • Summary: TERESOPOLIS, BRAZIL (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF RONALDINHO DURING TRAINING SESSION OF BRAZIL'S NATIONAL SQUAD
  • Embargoed: 27th January 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Brazil
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVABK6OTAEVJBB6X77YZ5EGTXZ4Q
  • Story Text: Former World Player of the Year Ronaldinho signed a four-year contract with Flamengo on Monday (January 10) night, in a bid to revive his flagging career and win a place in Brazil's 2014 World Cup squad.
    Ronaldinho was last week given permission by AC Milan to seek a move home to Brazil after he failed to hold down his place with the Serie A team.
    He was overlooked by Brazil squad for the World Cup last year but is still hoping to make the squad in 2014.
    On Monday night, fans and reporters crowded outside a hotel in Rio de Janeiro, where Ronaldinho's brother and agent, Roberto Assis, was gathered with Flamengo and AC Milan directors.
    Flamengo claim to be Brazil's most popular club with 25 million supporters.
    Flamengo's president Patricia Amorim gave a brief news conference after signing the deal.
    "We never announced the deal with the player was sealed. Only today, after the contracts were signed, at this time of the evening, when all the clauses were settled, when all the parties involved were confident and certain of this deal and after we had signed the agreement, we came here and made the announcement," she said, confirming the deal.
    Ronaldinho, who had also been chased by Gremio, the club where he was raised, and Palmeiras, was not present at the meeting.
    The 30-year-old player's return home was on the cover of all main newspapers on Tuesday (January 11).
    The signing of Ronaldinho is likely to cause another wave of huge expectation at Flamengo, one of Brazil's most volatile clubs.
    Flamengo fan Sergio Castro said he has high expectations, but only time would tell if Ronaldinho will lift the team.
    "I hope he will deliver good individual plays because he is an exceptional player, outstanding. We will have to wait; we can't say anything now because we don't know how he will behave," he said.
    Jose da Silva Barros, who supports another Brazilian team, said the deal was not fair to the other teams involved in negotiations.
    "I think this is a shame, a lack of respect with Gremio and other clubs. An auction is for an object that you possess, like gold, a car, but not for a human being," he said.
    Ronaldinho reached his peak when he helped Brazil win the 2002 World Cup and then during a five-year spell with Barcelona, where he was twice voted FIFA's World Player of the Year.
    But after a disappointing performance at the 2006 World Cup, his partying lifestyle and lack of fitness began to show and he joined AC Milan in 2008.
    Flamengo have won five Brazilian championship titles, most recently in 2009, but finished only two points above the relegation zone last season.
    Their attempts to add to the only title in the Libertadores Cup, South America's equivalent of the Champions League, have produced a series of spectacular failures.
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