The troubled world of Diego and Dinho

I wanted to play against you just once in my life... because you are the last person to give me hope for football.” This is what Diego Maradona told 20-year old Ronaldinho after a six-a-side football match in Buenos Aires on January 6, 2001.
Ronaldinho’s agent Eric Lovey, who witnessed the moment, told Le Parisien that the rising star was overcome by emotion, shed tears. He could not believe that his biggest football idol had such hopes in him.

Ronaldinho lived up to the Maradona hype, his mesmeric style winning over a legion of fans across the globe, and winning all individual and team accolades – like his idol Maradona. After joining French giants Paris Saint-Germain in August 2001, he would play his best football for Maradona’s former club Barcelona for five years before joining AC Milan in 2008-2011 and retiring in 2018 as only the seventh player to have won the Fifa World Cup, the Uefa Champions League and the Ballon d’Or.
Like Maradona in 1983, in 2005, Ronaldinho got a standing ovation from Real Madrid fans at the Santiago Bernabéu after two superb solo goals in Barcelona’s 3-0 victory in El Clásico.

Father’s counsel, guardian brother
Ronaldinho’s father João Moreira was unlucky not to see his son’s rise from the favelas of Porto Alegre to the apex of world football.
The welder died in a swimming pool at their new home, when Ronaldinho was eight years old. But perhaps his words contributed to his success story: “He gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever had. Off the field: ‘Do the right thing and be an honest, straight-up guy.’ And on the field: ‘Play soccer as simply as possible.’ He always said one of the most complicated things you can do is to play it simple,” according to Biograpghy.com.
Ronaldinho’s brother Roberto de Assis, nine years older, also played a major role. Once a promising professional with Gremio, Roberto lost track in Switzerland. Besides being the new father after Joao’s death, Roberto guided his little brother’, shielding him from the mistakes that had dented his career.

Ronaldinho’s trust in his brother, analysts say, made him. But, ironically, denied him the chance to try his own mistakes and forge an independent life expected of a 40-year old.
Ronaldinho is a showbiz master. He has made random appearances: a fighter in a movie, a police officer in Dubai, a percussion drummer at the 2018 World Cup, among others. Then his brother convinced him to take pictures while having a kickabout in prison. This time it backfired.

After 32 days in a Paraguayan prison, Ronaldinho and his brother were released on a $1.6m (Shs6b) bail but are barred from leaving so every night Ronaldinho pays an average of $64 (Shs240,000) in a hotel in central Asuncion.
Predictably, Maradona defended his friend – that his mistake “is being an idol.” But Ronaldinho’s lawyer told Brazilian media that his client is just “stupid” and “didn’t understand he had been given false documents.”
Stupid at 40 is unacceptable. But Ronaldinho might struggle to break the shackles of blindly following his brother Roberto.

Vinicius Grissi, a football pundit for Bandeirantes, told Bleacher Report in April that it is hard to blame Ronaldinho for over trusting his brother. “...even with such a great talent, he may not have reached as far as he did if he didn’t have a person by his side.”
Leonardo Bertozzi, a football analyst for ESPN, said that such dependence is not strange among Brazilian footballers. But he thinks it is time for Ronaldinho – who has a 15-year old son – thought and acted like a man.
Transitional battle?

In her article Life After Sport: Depression In The Retired Athlete, Emma Vickers, a sport psychologist, said many athletes spend too much time thinking only of training, competition and results, which leaves them ill-prepared for the balanced perspective required in the “real world.”
“Athletes often cannot see their lives following another career path and as soon as the dreaded retirement looms,” which creates a void that a training routine once filled.

For boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, Vickers cited, the fear of losing identity brought bouts of depression, forcing him into repeated comebacks to the ring.
But for some like Welsh star Garry Speed, depression even leads to suicide.
BBC’s Tim Vickery said that athletes are perceived mentally tough; fitter, healthier and happier than others, which makes it difficult for them to seek help. But they need social support to avoid post-retirement blues.

Ronaldinho’s prison story reminds Bertozzi of Maradona’s attempt to escape from Italy in 1991 amid the cocaine scandal. Ronaldinho does not use drugs. But off-the-field comparisons between these two geniuses, separated by two decades, are not unfounded.
Ronaldinho’s net worth is around $90m (Shs337b). A single Instagram post fetches him about $180,000. But such revenue streams quickly dry up due to image-denting scandals. Ask jailed Paralympian Oscar Pistorius, or golf icon Tiger Woods, who lost about $22m (Shs83b) in 2010 following his extramarital scandal.
Ronaldinho has been linked to controversies: an unpaid $2.5m fine for environmental abuse; advertising for a shady watch-making company. He also awaits trial in Brazil for engaging in a pyramid scheme.

Maradona’s fortunes, too, have been slimmed, over the years by the Italian tax authorities demanding over $50m.
“Maradona has no peers inside the pitch, but he has turned his life into a show, and is now living a personal ordeal that should not be imitated,” his former Argentina teammate Jorge Valdano warned.
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