THE RESURRECTION OF RONALDHINO

In his last season with AC Milan in 2009-10, critics began to doubt his football capability as a striker in Serie A. Not a few believed that the end is near for the career of one of the sport’s most colorful players in history. But things began to pick-up anew for Ronaldo de Assis Moreira or better known as Ronaldhino. After ten years in the lucrative European circuit, the 31 year-old, Porto Alegre native has finally returned to his beloved country of Brazil to play for Flamengo. Ronaldhino started playing pro football when he joined Gremio in the Brazilian league at the tender age of 18. In 2001, he started his European career with French club Paris Saint-Germain (55 matches, 17 goals). He later transferred to FC Barcelona of La Liga (145 matches, 70 goals) in 2003 and played five years at Nou Camp before heading to AC Milan (76 matches, 20 goals) for three years. The two-time FIFA player of the year winner (2004/2005) has since rejuvenated his career with Flamengo, scoring five goals in nine appearances so far. Ronaldhino, 31, has scored a total of 40 goals in 109 caps with the Brazilian national squad (including stints with U-17, U-20 and U-23 teams). He says his immediate goal right now is to make it back to the national team, wherein he missed playing in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

BRAZIL OFF TO A SLOW START IN COPA AMERICA

Perennial football powerhouse and 2014 FIFA World Cup host Brazil was held to a scoreless-draw by Venezuela in their opening match in the 2011 Copa America at La Plata in Argentina. Mano Menezes’ charges played anemic offensively during the early part of the match. The only thing going for the Brazilian side was their backfield game which kept the Venezuelans from executing inside incursions. Brazil could have been given a penalty shot when Robinho’s attempt seems to have hit the forearm of Venezuelan defender Oswaldo Vizcarrondo but the referee did not called such. Venezuela nearly scored twice in the final 22 minutes of the match but successive attempts of  Juan Fernando Arango and Tomas Rincon failed to hit the mark. Brazil has one last chance to score during the last minutes of the match but Neymar’s blast was off-target.