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GOLDEN BOY(Daily Mail Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)ALEX BELLOS reports from Porto RONALDINHO beats two players by juggling the ball from his chest and on to his head, then shoots to score a wonder goal. It is one of the best goals we have seen this season, yet the game took place 15 years ago when the Brazilian star was just 10 years old. The footage is part of Nike's latest ad campaign, and has become one of the most memorable images in the build-up to this year's World Cup. The moves are so precocious that it was first suspected the advert was faked, like an internet clip in which Ronaldinho hits the crossbar several times from distance. But Marcelo Bandeira de Mello knows the old footage is genuine because he was there. 'You see the guy who throws in the ball to Ronaldinho when he does that move - that's me!' says the 25-year-old TV technician. For four years - between the ages of 10 and 14 - Ronaldinho played indoor five-aside football, called futebol de salo, with Marcelo and his brother Renato, aged 26. Their team, Procergs, was a sensation as they won every tournament they entered. 'Ever since I first knew Ronaldinho, we all used to say he was one day going to be the best in the world,' says Renato. 'He was completely different from everyone else. He had that something extra. It was amazing playing alongside him, since we always knew that, thanks to him, we would get a result.' Ronaldinho's reputation began on his Procergs debut. With the first pass he received, he bounced the ball three times without it hitting the floor and then scored. Yet Renato says he was never showing off: 'He only ever did what he knew he had to in order to get past a player. If he had to bounce the ball three times in the air to do so, then he would do that. He always knew which was the correct move to make in any given situation.' Ronaldo de Assis Moreira was born on March 21, 1980, in Porto Alegre, the capital of Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul. Like most Brazilian footballers, especially the black ones, Ronaldinho- it means little Ronaldo - came from an impoverished background. His mother was a maid and his father a casual labourer who had migrated from the countryside to make a living in the city. The family's fortunes took an upward turn when his brother, Roberto, who is nine years older, became a professional footballer. Roberto, who was known professionally as Assis, was a prodigy at local club Gremio and when European sides showed an interest his father did a deal with Gremio: buy us a proper home and my son will stay in Porto Alegre. The Moreiras moved into a big house with a pool, a huge step up from the wooden shack they had lived in before. They were known as a party family - plenty of barbecues and music - yet not long after they moved in tragedy struck when Ronaldinho's father drowned in the pool. After that, Ronaldinho became close to the Simonatto dos Santos family. He met brothers Andrei and Tales playing football on the streets and their dad, Ronaldo, became a substitute father figure. 'I remember the day Tales came home and said there was this little boy who had amazing football skills. We discovered he was Assis's little brother. He quickly became part of my sons' crowd,' says Ronaldo, a 64-year-old retired engineer. Ronaldo remembers Ronaldinho's fragile emotional state. 'He was completely traumatised by the death of his father. We got to know him when he was in an introspective phase. He was timid, shy, like a scared little boy. He had this frightened look. 'He would come here every day with a ball underneath his arm. Going to school was a real drag for him. He just wanted to be playing football. If you asked him about school, he would only get excited about the PE lessons and say things like "Today I scored 21 goals".' Rio Grande do Sul is predominantly a white state. Most of people are the descendents of Italians, Poles and Germans, such as supermodel Gisele Bundchen. When you look through albums of Ronaldinho's childhood it is noticeable that he is the only black face. This is partly because of the state's racial makeup, but also because he was living in a middleclass neighbourhood. His mates from this period are all career professionals. Renato Bandeira de Mello is a doctor and Tales Simonatto dos Santos is his lawyer. Ronaldinho joined Gremio as a boy and played with their junior sides and twice a week in the evening he would practise fivea-side with Procergs. That is the name of a state data processing company and the idea of starting a team was made by employees who wanted to teach their sons about sporting values. Ronaldinho joined the youngest team (9-10) where Ronaldo Simonatto dos Santos was a coach. He says Ronaldinho was already a genius when he first saw him play. 'He would surprise us with moves that we would never have imagined anyone could do. He was two moments ahead of everyone else.' the youngster's skills, he was always humble. 'My kids would always moan, about their boots or whatever,' says Ronaldo. 'Ronaldinho never asked for anything.' On one occasion Ronaldinho took his brother's boots, which were several sizes too big, by mistake. He didn't tell anyone, played the first half in them and still impressed. Yet even Ronaldinho had weaknesses. 'He would have lapses of concentration,' says Ronaldo. 'He would just stop in the pitch and start staring at something or someone in the crowd. We made him stop that. We taught him positioning and we trained heading, which is still his weak point. He prefers the ball at his feet.' Between the ages of 10 and 14, Ronaldinho played in the competitive state futebol de salao league. Even at such a level football is taken seriously and tournaments were filmed by the organisers, who then resold the tapes to parents, hence the footage of Ronaldinho used in the Nike commercial. Futebol de salao uses a small ball which is weighted so it doesn't bounce and Ronaldo believes Ronaldinho developed talent for control because of the game. During summer holidays, the Bandeira de Mello brothers would go to their beach home in the resort of Tramandai. Their father, Augusto, a doctor and 'team physio' of Procergs, formed a beach football side called New Kids. Each weekend members of the Procergs teams would descend on Tramandai. Ronaldinho turned up for the whole summer! New Kids took part in 11a-side beach competitions and won everything. The star, as always, was Ronaldinho. 'Hundreds of people would turn up to our games,' said Renato. 'They were coming to see him and everyone felt one day he would play for Brazil.' In his mid-teens, Ronaldinho moved to Switzerland, where Assis was playing for Sion. He then became professional at Gremio and was 19 when he got his first senior call-up for the national team. He subsequently moved to Paris Saint-Germainand then, in 2003, to Barcelona. Yet, he has kept in touch with the friends he made from Procergs and New Kids and fixed it for Caco Espinoza, a Procergs team-mate, to coach at Barca. He also remains close to Ronaldo Simonatto dos Santos, who he regards as a personal mentor. Ronaldo always gives him fatherly advice: 'I remember telling Ronaldinho he was becoming famous and that this would make him very popular with women. You will always use a condom, I told him. "Yes, uncle," he replied. 'And what's more, you will always bring your own. Because you can't trust the woman not to have put a hole in hers.' With some of the millions he has earned in his astounding career, Ronaldinho has had a dream home built in Porto Alegre. Rather, it is a sports and entertainment complex with three mansions: one is for him, one for Roberto and one for his mum and his sister. In addition, there is a fullsized football pitch, a seven-aside pitch and an indoor futebol de salo pitch. There is a swimming pool and a nightclub. The talented boy from the shack in Brazil has certainly come a long way. |