Ronaldinho saunters into the Camp Nou lounge an hour late, all perma-smile, high-fives and hugs for any of the loitering Barcelona employees. That smile isn’t suppressed by the prospect of four hours of face-to-face interviews with different journalists, ranging from Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport (likely sample question: “Would you like to play in Serie A?”) to the McDonald’s consumer magazine (unlikely sample question: “What are your thoughts on deforestation of the Amazon rainforest in order to support beef cattle farming for a multinational company?”).
There are 100 other things that the 25-year-old would rather be doing, and most involve having a ball at his feet. Ronaldinho, ranked at No.4 in FourFourTwo's list of the greatest Barcelona players of all time, repeats the answers to the same questions over and over, from Catalan journalists about Barça, Barça, and more Barça, while simultaneously adding his signature to bundles of replica shirts in the colours of Brazil or the Blaugrana.
When FFT invites him to speak about the former, he appears to appreciate the change of subject.
