Ronaldo de Assis Moreira, more commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaucho was born in the city of Porto Alegre, which is the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. He has two siblings an older brother Roberto de Assis Moreira, and a sister Deisi de Assis Moreira. His mother, Dona Miguelina Elói Assis dos Santos, is a former salesperson who was studying to become a nurse. His father, João de Assis Moreira, was a shipyard worker and played football for a local club named, Esporte clube de Cruzeiro. Ronaldinho's father died from a heart attack in the family swimming pool when Ronaldinho was eight.
Ronaldinho’s older brother Roberto was also a footballer, He signed with Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Algrense. After Roberto signed with Grêmio the family moved to the wealthier part of Porto Alegre. This was a gift given by Grêmio to convince Roberto to stay with them, but unfortunately Roberto’s career was cut short due to injury.
Ronaldinho's football skills began to expand at the age of eight, and was first given the nickname, Ronaldinho because most of the time he was the youngest and the smallest player in youth club matches. In 2001, Ronaldinho signed a five-year contract with French side Paris Saint-Germain in a €5 million transfer. Ronaldinho made his league debut for the club on August 4, 2001 appearing as a substitute in a 1–1 draw with Auxerre.Ronaldinho spent the majority of the 2001 portion of the season alternated between the bench and starter's role. He scored his first goal for the club on October 13 in a 2–2 draw against Lyon converting the equalizing penalty in the 79th minute after just coming on 10 minutes before. After returning from the winter break, Ronaldinho went on a tear, scoring in four consecutive matches to open the new campaign. He scored very impressive goals against teams such as, Monaco, Rennes, Lens and Lorient. On March 16, 2002, Ronaldinho recorded a double in PSG's 3–1 victory against Troyes. He scored his final league goal of the season in the club's 2–0 win over Metz on April, 27. While being very successful with the team on the field, he did have controversial problems with his manager Luis Fernandez who claimed Ronaldinho’s focus wasn't on soccer and was on living a party all night lifestyle. After the team failed to qualify for any European championship the next season, Ronaldinho declared he would like to leave.
Ronaldinho participated in his first World Cup in 2002, as part of a formidable offensive unit with Ronaldo and Rivaldo, named the "three R's", who were also on the 1999 Copa América winning squad. The World Cup was held in Korea/Japan, and Ronaldinho appeared in five matches during the tournament and scored two goals, as well as contributing several important assists. His first goal came in the group stage match against China, which Brazil won 4–0. Ronaldinho's most famous game if the 2002 world cup was in the quarterfinals against England where he gave a key assist to Rivaldo to help tie the game 1-1. Then in the 50th minute, Ronaldinho took a free-kick from 40 yards out which curved into the top left corner of the net, completely surprising England's goalkeeper David Seaman, and gave Brazil a 2–1 lead. However, seven minutes later, he was sent-off for a foul on England's defender Danny Mills. Ronaldinho was suspended for the semifinal, but returned to Brazil's starting lineup for the 2–0 victory over Germany in the final as Brazil won the World Cup for the fifth time.After F.C Barcelona failed to acquire David Beckham they shifted all their focus to Ronaldinho, and they successfully outbid Manchester United in a reported €30 million deal.
Ronaldinho made his team debut in a match against Milan where he scored one goal and led the team to win 2-0. He scored his first La liga goal in september 2003 against Sevilla, where he received the ball inside his own half and dribbled past the midfield between two Sevilla players and shooting from thirty yards away. Ronaldinho suffered an injury in the first half of the campaign and barcelona fell to 12th place in the league, after Ronaldinho returned and scored 15 goals in la liga and helped the team return to 2nd place. Ronaldinho won his first league title in 2004–05, and was named FIFA World Player of the Year on 20 December 2004. Ronaldinho's fame was growing with his entertaining and productive play in both the La Liga and the UEFA Champions League. By the end of the year 2005, Ronaldinho had started to accumulate a great number of personal awards. He won the inaugural FIFPro World Player of the Year in September 2005, in addition to being included in the 2005 FIFPro World XI, the 2005 European Footballer of the Year. Also that year, Ronaldinho was voted the FIFA World Player of the Year for the second consecutive year.He became only the third player to win the award more than once, after three time winners Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane. His domination as the world's best footballer was undisputed as he also won the prestigious Ballon d'Or for the only time in his career. On November 19, Ronaldinho scored twice as Barcelona defeated Real Madrid 3–0 on the road in the first leg of El Clásico. After he sealed the match with his second goal, Madrid fans paid respect to his performance with a standing ovation,rare a tribute only Diego Maradona had ever been granted previously as a Barcelona player.Ronaldinho stated; "I will never forget this because it is very rare for any footballer to be applauded in this way by the opposition fans."
The 2005-2006 season is considered one of the best in Ronaldinho's career as he was an instrumental part of Barcelona's first Champions League title in 14 years. Barcelona faced Chelsea in the round of 16 for a rematch of the previous year. Ronaldinho scored a decisive goal in the second leg, going past three Chelsea defenders on the edge of the penalty area before beating the goalkeeper, sealing Barcelona's qualification to the next round. He also scored one goal in Barcelona's elimination of Benfica in the quarterfinals with a 2–0 victory. After a 1–0 semifinal win over Milan, where Ronaldinho assisted the series' only goal by Ludovic Giuly, Barcelona went on to the Champions League final, which they won on may 17, 2006 with a 2–1 defeat of Arsenal. Barcelona had also clinched their second straight La Liga title with a 1–0 win over Celta Vigo, giving Ronaldinho his first career double. He finished the season with a career-best 26 goals, including 7 in the Champions League, and was chosen for the UEFA Team of the Year for the third consecutive time and was named the 2005–06 UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.Ronaldinho was named in the six man shortlist for the 2006 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, and was selected in the FIFA World XI. Ronaldinho also received another great title to put on his resume, Father. Ronaldinho became a father for the first time on February 25, 2005, after Brazilian dancer Janaína Mendes gave birth to their son, who was named João after Ronaldinho's late father.[
On 25 November 2006, Ronaldinho scored his 50th career league goal against Villarreal, then later scored a second time with an overhead bicycle kick. He later said to reporters that the latter was a goal he had dreamed of scoring since he was a boy.He scored once and set up two others in Barcelona's 4–0 Club World Cup win over Mexico's Club América on 14 December, but Barcelona were defeated 1–0 by Brazilian club Internacional in the final. Ronaldinho was nonetheless the recipient of the Bronze Ball Award for the competition.
Ronaldinho and Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi each captained a team of international stars in an exhibition match for anti racism in Venezuela on June 28, which ended in a 7–7 draw. Ronaldinho finished with a pair of goals and two assists in what would be his last match as a Barcelona player. Ronaldinho sent an open letter to the fans and players of Barcelona, stating that his best years had been the five he spent in the Catalan club.
On July 7 2008, Ronaldinho was named in Brazil's 2008 Summer Olympics squad as one of the over-age players. Barcelona initially blocked the move because of his then-upcoming Champions League commitments with the club, but the decision was later nullified following Ronaldinho's transfer to Milan, who in turn permitted him to make the trip to Beijing. Ronaldinho captained the team, and he scored his only two goals in a 5–0 victory over New Zealand before Brazil were beaten by Argentina in the semifinal. Brazil finished with the bronze medal after defeating Belgium 3–0 in the bronze medal match.
Ronaldinho continued on to play in many more clubs such as; Milan, Flamengo, Atlético Mineiro, and currently Querétaro. Ronaldinho is regarded as being one of the greatest and most skilful players of his generation.Throughout his career, Ronaldinho has been praised in particular for his technical skills and creativity; due to his pace, acceleration, agility, balance, ball control, and dribbling ability, he is capable of beating players when undertaking individual runs, often using feints in one on one situations. ESPN has described Ronaldinho as being "skillful by nature, his tricks are unparalleled and he is wonderful with the ball at his feet. One of the coolest players in pressure situations" and a "fast, brash, skilful, tricky, an uninhibited playmaker" who provides "a mix of goals, assists, skills and a large repertoire of crafty moves." Ronaldinho has had endorsements with many companies, including Nike, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, EA Sports, and Gatorade. One of the world's highest paid players, in 2006 he earned over $19 million from endorsements. Ronaldinho features in EA Sports' FIFA video game series, appearing in the cover of FIFA Football 2004, FIFA 06, FIFA 07, FIFA 08 and FIFA 09. His 2005 Nike advertisement, where he is given a new pair of boots and then proceeds to juggle a football and appears to repeatedly volley it against the crossbar of a goal and recover it without the ball touching the ground, went viral on YouTube, becoming the site's first video to reach one million views. A wax sculpture of Ronaldinho was unveiled at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong in December 2007. Ronaldinho has had an official role with UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, since February 2006. In 2011, he was recruited by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to promote awareness among young people of the disease and how to avoid it.
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