Ronaldinho
 

The big man has retired from professional football.

Ronaldinho: Brazilian World Cup winner retires from football - BBC Sport

Favourite Dinho moments? Lots for me, all the tricks, the Joga Bonito stuff and mentoring Messi. The goal vs AC Milan, the goals vs Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, the goal at Stamford Bridge, so many goals.

But I'd go for this one, because no way did he mean to control the ball like that, but how he recovered the situation and scored just sums him up, you never knew what he was going to do.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFTp4i11mOw

Tried so many times to do the elastico after seeing him do it, and actually pulled it off in training once, through the defenders legs, to a chorus of 'ooooh!'s and applause from my team mates :cool:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLAg2x3Zo1Q

Definitely the most unique player I've ever seen and even had some of my mates who don't like football interested in the matches to see him pull off another one of his circus tricks.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krQIPjUiYLk

Ronnie :cool:

https://media.giphy.com/media/AUmYTeaEuVkcM/giphy.gif

https://media.giphy.com/media/fxMVHtyEYk0bS/giphy.gif

http://www.gifbin.com/bin/122011/132...warming_up.gif

never got to see him during the barca years unfortunately, but still catching him on the Milan side and seeing him with Brazil gave me an idea of the caliber of player he truly is.

there may be other players who will try and succeed with doing similar things in training, but its incredibly rare for a player to have the balls to try it during a game, and even rarer that the player actually pulls it off. dinho made it look easy.

The Barca years were great. Highlights include the matches against Chelsea in the CL. Really brought a new style of play to the game imo, took the Brazilian flair and went gung-ho with it. Closest I see to that now is Neymar but he's not as good with it, and isn't as likeable as Dinho was.

If he had the same dedication as Cristiano he would have been even better as well.

I remember I had a football book around 2004, and it estimated the market value for players at that time. Ronaldinho was second highest at £50m, remember this is 2004 so £50m was a world record then. The highest value was Messi who had only just broken into the Barca first team, and was valued at £80m when he was 17. No point to this, just remember it from the time.

Also that Brazil team he was a part of 2002/06 was so fun. Four Ballon d'Or winners in it ffs.

Best assist of all time around 30 seconds.

Probably falls just in or outside the Top 10 players of all time, which is by no means a criticism, but no player in history has ever encapsulated the pure joy of football more than him. Maybe Jay Jay Okocha comes close :)

a player of dinho's stature (or messi or ronaldo for that matter) would have to go for 300-400 mil now. hard to believe a player going for a 1/3 of a billion but if Pogba is 100+ and Neymar is 200+

Just for fun I'll list who I think are the Top 10 players ever.

10. Ronaldinho/Thierry henry
9. Beckenbauer
8. Di Stefano
7. Zidane
6. Ronaldo
5. Cruyff
4. Maradona
3. Pele
2. C. Ronaldo
1. Messi

Mad assist.

And Okocha was great, played with Ronaldinho at PSG :)

Who is in your top ten? Doesn't matter you already posted it. Reading now.

Disagree with a few but Zidane over Iniesta surprises me.

Iniesta doesn't come close to Zidane. Xavi would be closer to the Top 10.

good list imo

Messi
Maradona
Best
Ronaldo
Cruyff
Cristiano
Maldini
Eusebio
Iniesta
Di Stefano

#topten