World Cup and 2005 Ballon D\u2019Or winner Ronaldinho confirmed on Wednesday his retirement from football. The 37-year-old\u2019s last professional football match was in 2015 for Brazil\u2019s Fluminense. The Brazilian\u2019s brother and agent announced the player\u2019s decision on Tuesday. Ronaldinho confirmed the decision one day later in an Instagram post.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter almost three decades dedicated to football, I say goodbye to my biggest dream. A fulfilled dream,\u201d the playmaker said. \u201cI did what I love the most as a professional for 20 years and another 10 years in the academy. I lived this child\u2019s dream intensely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ronaldinho, who had his best club moments at Barcelona, thanked teammates, coaches and fans for his career. He also praised the football with a reference to Real Madrid\u2019s legendary player Alfredo di Stefano (1926-2014). \u201cThanks, old woman, for being my biggest source of inspiration for so long,\u201d Ronaldinho said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know me and you know that I am shy, I am not used to speaking much. But thank you all from the bottom of my heart.\u201d Ronaldinho said he will announce details of the farewell in March. On Tuesday his agent Roberto Assis told the Associated Press that Ronaldinho\u2019s plans include being a football ambassador for Barcelona, doing charity and working with music.<\/p>\n
Ronaldinho\u2019s decorated career also includes one Champions League victory with Barcelona in 2006 and two FIFA player of the year Awards in 2004 and 2005. He played 101 matches and scored 35 goals for Brazil from 1997 to 2013. At the Camp Nou, Ronaldinho was an integral member of a squad that took Barca back to the limelight. The Brazilian played 207 games for the Catalans and gave 94 goals and 61 assists to the team.<\/p>\n
Ronaldinho\u2019s club career also includes Gremio, Flamengo and Atletico Mineiro in Brazil, Paris Saint-Germain in France, AC Milan in Italy and Queretaro in Mexico. Several clubs and players around the world are still praising Ronaldinho for his football legacy, including his former teammate and protegee Lionel Messi. \u201cI learned a lot by your side. I\u2019ll forever be grateful to you for making everything so easy when I joined the first team,\u201d Messi said in his social media channels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky enough to share many things with you and I\u2019m really happy about that because, as well as being a star out on the pitch, you\u2019re an excellent person and that\u2019s the most important thing. Although you\u2019ve decided to retire, football will never forget your smile,\u201d the Argentine said.<\/p>\n
Three-time World Cup winner Pele also gave praise to the retiree. \u201cYou brought a smile to everyone\u2019s face, Ronaldinho. I hope you glide through life, like you glided through tackles,\u201d Pele said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
World Cup and 2005 Ballon D\u2019Or winner Ronaldinho confirmed on Wednesday his retirement from football. The 37-year-old\u2019s last professional football match was in 2015 for Brazil\u2019s Fluminense. The Brazilian\u2019s brother and agent announced the player\u2019s decision on Tuesday. Ronaldinho confirmed the decision one day later in an Instagram post. \u201cAfter almost three decades dedicated to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19138,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136\/revisions\/19138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}