Sid Lowe’s article from the Guardian this week. Good read as always.
Ronaldinho misses Barcelona’s big night out
As Lionel Messi marked the Camp Nou’s 50th anniversary, the Spanish press reported a disgruntled Brazilian is out of shape and out of favour.
Sid Lowe
September 24, 2007 5:50 PM
Saturday night at the Camp Nou. The world’s best player flicks the ball into the air, swivels and acrobatically thumps it into the net with startling pace, power and precision. Before the goalkeeper has even reacted, he’s racing towards the delirious, hero-worshipping Barcelona fans, a cheeky grin spreading across his face as he performs that famous gesture - the cartoon-style surf-dude trademark now so identified with Bara that it’s been fashioned from foam and put on sale in the club shop. Out come the thumb and little finger and there it is … wiggle-waggle! Fiesta!
Only there’s something wrong. This time the wiggling digits don’t belong to a cuddly bouncing Brazilian with wonky teeth and Soul Glow dripping from his luscious locks but a mumbling, awkward Argentinian with a hobbit’s ears and a hobbit’s height too. It is Leo Messi standing there a hero, having finally broken the stalemate and scored the opener against Sevilla; Ronaldinho, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen. Which is pretty odd, really. After all, it’s not like Samba Tri’s bongo player to miss out on a party - and, boy, was there a party on Saturday night.
It was 50 years ago today that Bara began to play at the Camp Nou and they marked the occasion with a celebration that was, literally, a load of balls: 50 inflatable golden balls were released from the stands while four more hung from the roof adorned with the names of Bara’s greats. And Winston Bogarde. Dangling from one was a gymnast in a disturbingly revealing leotard, not so much Linford’s Lunchbox as Fiona’s Thermos Flask, down on the pitch some people hit oil drums with big sticks, flashy lights zoomed about and fireworks raced into the sky. The 1957 team, the first to play here - thanks to a bit of wangling from the Francoist council, but don’t expect Bara to tell you that - waved a bit. So did current captain Carles Puyol, and in the stands Samuel Eto’o shook lots of hands.
Meanwhile, in the jam-packed directors’ box, Joan Laporta was busy stuffing his face with pork pies, looking smug and somehow managing to keep a straight face when he told Norman Foster, the sexologist’s husband responsible for some of the world’s most impressive erections: “Bara are more than a club and you, Sir Norman, are more than an architect.”
You see, not only did Bara celebrate 50 years of the Camp Nou on Saturday night, they also unveiled plans for the new stadium (which could presumably be called the Nou Nou Camp and get opened by Boutros Boutros Ghali). The Camp Nou will get a 250m facelift, which, like every other architectural project was described as a fusion of the traditional and modern. It is inspired, or so said Foster, by Antoni Gaud but looks more like it was inspired by a particularly heavy night on the pills and an especially vicious Pimiento de Padrn.
Yes, Ronaldinho missed a big old night, alright - and the biggest game of the season so far: Barcelona against Sevilla. But then, Bara said, he did have a minor injury. Not that you could trust them: Rijkaard knew nothing about it and this is the club that when he missed over 50% of last season’s training sessions insisted the Brazilian was in the gym working up a sweat when in fact he was at home working off a hangover.
Minor injury? Major strop, more like. Already irritated at having been substituted for three successive games this season, the Brazilian awoke on Thursday morning (OK, Thursday afternoon), to stories accusing him of being out on the sauce 48 hours before a match, thus breaking Barcelona’s new-fangled code of conduct. Meanwhile, an anonymous member of the coaching staff admitted that he can no longer outrun opponents and a board member feared he was on course to throw his career away. All of which would be bad enough, but the fact that the story was written by two proper papers - El Pas and La Vanguardia - as opposed to Catalan comics Sport and Mundo Deportivo made it even worse. Alongside a picture of Ronaldinho with his tongue hanging out like a dog in a hot car, the following day’s headlines screamed: “Crisis!”
Sensing a sneaky boardroom leak, Ronaldinho was furious and brother Roberto denounced a “conspiracy”, accurately suspecting a club plan to make sure fans knew that Ronaldinho’s lack of fitness and expanding belly was his fault, not theirs. So it was that on Saturday morning, the Brazilian pulled out of the game; so it was that Messi celebrated his goal with Ronaldinho’s famous gesture.
Trouble is, while he meant it as a gesture of solidarity, Messi could end up being precisely the reason why Bara could afford to lose Ronaldinho. He is, quite simply, ridiculously good. He has, as Ray Slijngaard-loving Laporta put it, “no limits”, while the headlines described him as the “Messiah”. Not only did he score a brilliant goal that put Bara in the lead, he then rolled home a comically cool penalty that made it 2-0, securing victory against a Sevilla side that came for a goalless draw and only briefly stirred for Freddie Kanout to score a neat consolation in the last minute.
A week ago, Bara were on the verge of a crisis. Now, Messi has led them to victories over Lyon and Sevilla, to within two points of Madrid and to a bit of optimism. Thierry Henry still isn’t quite right but is slowly settling, the introduction of Eric Abidal and Yaya Tour has left the defence more solid than ever (Oleguer’s comedy cameos apart), Iniesta dominates possession like few midfielders, and although a fit and focused Ronaldinho is still the world’s best, if he does not prove, in Rijkaard’s words, “recoverable”, some fans think it may not matter. After all, Bara have Messi. He is the new messiah and he’s not a very naughty boy.
Results: Recreativo 2-1 Espanyol, Barcelona 2-1 Sevilla, Zaragoza 2-1 Osasuna, Levante 1-2 Athletic, Villarreal 2-0 Murcia, Almera 1-1 Mallorca, Betis 1-2 Valencia, Getafe 0-0 Deportivo, Atltico 4-0 Racing, Valladolid 1-1 Real Madrid.