Will the Real Ronaldinho please stand up?

The Brazil­ian Ronald­inho was at one time regarded as the best foot­baller in the world, but over the last two or three years his for­tunes have changed and he now has a bit of work to do in restor­ing his rep­u­ta­tion. The two-time world-footballer of the year was even left out of Brazil’s Con­fed­er­a­tions Cup squad and is no longer a reg­u­lar choice for the national side.

It seems to be a prob­lem with many Brazil­ian super-stars who enjoy a great start to their career and then fall by the way­side. How­ever, unlike Ronaldo (the Brazil­ian one, of course) Ronald­inho does not enjoy the unadul­ter­ated adu­la­tion of the Brazil­ian fans and his place in the national side is some­what pre­car­i­ous. With such a wealth of attack­ing tal­ent at their dis­posal (Robinho, Kaka, Pato etc) it will be dif­fi­cult for Ronald­inho to force his way back into Brazil boss Dunga’s plans. How­ever, the sale of Kaka to Real Madrid may allow Ronald­inho more free­dom and greater influ­ence at Milan, which could help him back into the national side.

Milan owner Sil­vio Berlus­coni also holds this view and feels this year could be a very impor­tant one for the fallen Brazil­ian star.

Speak­ing to Medi­aset Berlus­coni said:  “He needs to be the extra man this sea­son — that’s the respon­si­bil­ity of a sale we were forced into mak­ing. But this (sale of Kaka) will give Ronald­inho space. All the other play­ers also want this to be Ronaldinho’s year. He’s 29 and in top shape physically.

“All he needs now is the desire to be deci­sive for this Milan team and I believe we can have faith in him.”

Rumours sur­faced last year that Ronald­inho had fallen out with then Milan boss Carlo Ancelotti, which saw his appear­ances at the San Siro restricted. How­ever, Leonardo, a fel­low Brazil­ian, is now in charge at Milan and with the back­ing of the club’s owner and man­ager Ronaldinho’s for­tunes may just change.

I see no rea­son why he can­not upset the Ital­ian foot­ball odds and return to form. At 29-years-old he should still be in decent shape and his level of skill is rivalled by few. One prob­lem that seems to have dogged Ronald­inho through­out his career is his reported love of the social scene — i.e. too much par­ty­ing! The rumours sur­faced in Paris when he was at Paris Saint Ger­maine, they fol­lowed him when he moved to Barcelona, and indeed after the last World Cup it is alleged he held a mas­sive party at his Barcelona home despite his nation’s rel­a­tively poor show­ing (elim­i­nated in the quar­ter finals) at the tournament.

Whether all these rumours are true or not, I don’t know, what I do know is Ronald­inho needs to make sure he doesn’t court such neg­a­tive pub­lic­ity in the run up to the com­pe­ti­tion in South Africa. He undoubt­edly has the tal­ent to get back into the national side and a good sea­son at Milan may see him work his way back into con­tention. The World Cup in 2010 will be a great occas­sion, of that I’m sure, but it would be strange with­out Ronald­inho who has been such a big player for Brazil over the last decade or so.