Ronaldinho made a rare return to football by playing in Gerard Pique‘s Kings League on Sunday.
The legendary Brazilian signed to Ibai Llanos’ seven-a-side team Porcinos to much acclaim a week ago.
Ronaldinho is conveniently in Spain supporting his 17-year-old son Joao Mendes, who’s starting his footballing journey in Barcelona.
But Ronaldinho may want to reconsider his commitment to his new league as he didn’t quite meet expectations.
The ex-Ballon d’Or and World Cup winner, who once dazzled the field with his amazing skills, came off the bench five minutes into the match. But he failed to capitalize on two goal-scoring opportunities, sending one free kick into the wall.
Party-Animal Ronaldinho is still taking it easy
A shootout was enforced with the sides tied at the end of regulation.
Ronaldinho refrained from participating in the shootout, which gives players five seconds to strike one v one with the goalie. The shootout format emulates the MLS-initiated format in the early 1990s.
A delightfully pudgy 42-year-old Ronaldinho told the ref, “I am not going to do any running, let someone else run.”
PIO FC, owned by popular Mexican Youtuber Samy Rivera, pulled off an upset and defeated Porcinos, the top team in the Kings League, in a 3-1 shootout.
Remember that Ronaldinho had a nightclub clause in his Flamengo contract after his known party days at AC Milan.
He and his teammates showed up to the game in a pink limo with a lively samba band there to greet the team. More than 2.1 million viewers watched the pre-game and match on the popular live-streaming platform Twitch.
More about Kings League
After retiring from football in 2022, former Barcelona player Pique created the Kings League, a unique 12-team seven-a-side tournament mixing lesser-known locals, ex-professionals, and even some current pros. Each team is also allowed to call up a guest player for each week’s set of matches.
Star personalities like LLanos and former professionals like Sergio Aguero run their own teams. Aguero made a surprise appearance on the pitch for his team KuniSports last month.
The King League finals will be held at Camp Nou in March.
Photo: Instagram/KingsLeague
