Ronaldinho to make football comeback aged 46

While Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are still playing at 39 and 41 respectively, most football fans thought Ronaldinho belonged to another footballing era.

That all changed in June, when Italian Serie C club, Ravenna, announced that the former Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan forward would play for them in the upcoming season.

On a rainy Thursday in northeastern Italy, the former Ballon d’Or winner was unveiled with a quick press conference and a sense of excitement gripping the city.

“I’m very happy to be here with friends, we have a team that can do something good,” said Ronaldinho.

“I just arrived, but I have a great desire to live this experience with the whole city.”

Pure PR?

The 46-year-old last played for Fluminense in his homeland in 2015 and will become a shareholder in Ravenna, owned by Ignazio Cipriani, an Italian-American businessman who has owned the club since 2024.

Despite holding up the shirt and signing a piece of paper for the cameras, the suspicion remains that this is little more than a PR stunt for an ambitious lower league club. Ronaldinho himself didn’t actually dispel those rumors.

“Will you see me play? I don’t know, only the coach knows that,” he said. “Coming back to Italy is wonderful, I’m here to help my teammates win.”

Both the Brazilian and Cipriani used the same language to describe one of Ronaldinho’s motivations: “Friendship and passion,” they both said. Both men also referred to Ronaldinho’s quest to score a 300th professional goal.

“His objective is romantic, to try to score his last goal,” Cipriani said.

“His involvement is not a token gesture or a marketing stunt to get people talking about us.”

The way in which that figure has been reached is slightly unclear, with many widely used resources saying Ronaldinho has scored far fewer than 299 goals in his career. He has, however, won the Ballon d’Or in 2005, the 2002 World Cup and topflight titles in Spain and Italy.

Ronaldinho some way off Japan’s Miura

Whether he ends up playing or not, Ronaldinho’s presence in the northeastern city of about 160,000 inhabitants has sparked plenty of anticipation and ticket sales. Reports suggest the club has sold 2,700 season tickets, largely off the back of the Brazilian’s arrival.

Even if he does get onto the pitch at 46, Ronaldinho will be far from the oldest footballer around. That title has long belonged to Japan’s Kazuyoshi Miura, 59.

The former Japan international, who also played in Italy, scored two penalties in the country’s Emperor’s Cup competition this week, further extending his record as the world’s oldest player.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold