At 40, star Ronaldinho falls from the sky

It must feel supremely foolish. You turn 40 when somehow growing old was never associated with you, now suddenly, here's the official onset of middle-age. That's fine, defying age was never anyone's strong suit.
But here, the afterglow of your superstardom scarcely diminished, you find yourself in prison in a foreign country, awaiting perhaps a six-month sentence for a crime that's not even up to scratch.A forged passport, all in the time of coronavirus. Not the best way to begin growing wise, or even worldly-wise.
It's hard to want to be Ronaldinho today. And that in itself is a growing up of a massive scale. Because if there was anything the world once wanted more, it was to emulate the ultimate, timeless cool of the Brazilian charmer. Or probably even spy just a glimpse of it. Live off it, we did. There was no shame in that - no Messi-Cristiano camps to hide in, no Federer-Nadal sides to take. It was sporting happiness of the purest level, the child-like glee that made industrial scale culling of footballing reputations look pretty, less gruesome. Who would have a jersey exchange requested at half-time by the very player he'd chose to chew and spit out in the ill-tempered but memorable battle with Chelsea? Paulo Ferreira was so captivated by the experience that in a footballing Stockholm Syndrome, he made the grand gesture. He may have recovered later but that day, he too had joined the Ronaldinho cult of which we were willing members.
One remembers during a trip to Barcelona, as evening approached, we asked the cabbie to drive us around the city's nightclub district, only in the hope of spotting the fabled Brazilian because that was where he would often be found in his final years at FC Barcelona. It mattered little that it was 2011, the eve of Barcelona's Champions League semifinal 'Clasico' with Real Madrid, and the man had long been ushered into history. Yet, we asked the cabbie and he obliged with a laugh. That was the appeal of the man. Even as the rest of the football world laboured in the shadow of one of the most complete teams in the modern game - Pep Guardiola's Barcelona with all its efficiency and invention - it was Ronaldinho we foolishly still sought. Messi, Xavi, Iniesta - Cristiano Ronaldo too - could all come a day later.
"I may be ugly," Ronaldinho had once said, "but I have a certain charm."
This was his outrage at being sidestepped for the more marketable David Beckham as Real Madrid embarked on their highly ambitious but eventually flawed Galactico fantasy in 2003. Then he single-handedly ensured he wrote the script and carved out history. Perhaps Ronaldinho was the first true Galactico of new millennium, with his own physics defying laws he changed the course of pre-ordained things.
In a world of ready and acceptable regimentation, he was the most effortless doer of huge things as institutions were dismantled and shown their place. In this current time of Work From Home, he never ever seemed to be Working From Work even, but the truth is Ronaldinho did the heavy lifting for FC Barcelona. Before Messi's genius -though it has a Sisyphean ring to it today - the bar was set by Ronaldinho.
Yet, today, Ronaldinho finds himself in an almost Chekovian scenario - scarcely comprehending what he did wrong and then having the judge send him to prison while asking him for an autograph. Residing in a world of his own making, he's been seen with fellow inmates sharing drink off flimsy plastic glass, much like how most of us reading this have done each day, for so many years now, just not in prison. It was a cruel realisation that in wanting to be Ronaldinho all this while, we saw him become one of us.