Ronaldinho's best trick? When Barcelona icon went viral for warm-up brilliance

Ronaldinho brought new levels of entertainment to the beautiful game.

We’re all aware that the Brazilian icon never produced the head-spinning numbers that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have plundered over the last 15 years, but frankly, that’s missing the point.

With Ronaldinho, it’s not really about the GOAT debate or Ballon d’Or trophies, its the pure, unadulterated joy that he brought to football fans that makes him one of the greatest athletes of all time.

In fact, there has arguably never been a footballer who has struck the balance between the productivity required to thrive at the highest level and the untamed entertainment factor that you expect to see in FIFA Street so perfectly.

If anything, the style of play that Ronaldinho championed at the height of his powers would, in the hands of a lesser baller, be considered woefully inefficient, meandering and frankly unnecessary.

But Ronaldinho’s truly special ability to deliver cold, hard numbers while still whipping out jaw-dropping skills and borderline showboating straight from the streets of Brazil marks him out as one of a kind.

And when you have the talent to simultaneously win Ballon d’Or titles and play like you’re balling out in a charity game, it means that you can produce some of the greatest tricks and flicks that football has ever seen.

Plus, when the pressures of in-game scenarios are stripped away and chasing goals – what are they? – isn’t the be all and end all, the handbrake can be taken off and box-office value truly goes through the ceiling.

And that’s exactly why one of Ronaldinho’s finest demonstrations of the very unlimited talent we’ve been waxing lyrical about actually came before the first whistle even blew.

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