EPL, Premiership, English Premier League

In a surprising turn of events Ronaldinho’s representative (and brother) Roberto De Assis attended the Man City vs Chelsea game (0-2) and discussed Man City’s interest in Ronaldinho transferring with the Club Directors as they watched the game. Sven-Goran Eriksson expressed his delight about the occasion, ” We would be able to find a place in our team for him, I can guarantee that. I will phone the owners. It was a surprise, but if they want to package Ronaldinho for me I would accept him and be very happy.” Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has already stated his intent to spend over €30 million to sign new transfers this summer. De Assis has also visited Inter Milan and AC Milan recently.

Ronaldinho has not had the best year at Barcelona and was just injured as the Champions League quarter finals ended and may be out for 6 weeks; claims have risen about his lack of commitment to Barcelona and that he has put on too much weight; the Brazilian has been suffering of knee tendinitis and a foot injury. Ronaldinho has only scored 9 goals this year in all of Barcelona’s matches (European, league and Cup). Ronaldinho has a contract that should last until 2010 with a buyout section which is extremely high; however, De Assis has threatened to call upon an unusual FIFA clause which could allow Ronaldinho to end his contract early. It’s still far to early to determine what will happen and it would be really surprising if Ronaldinho signed with a mid-tier EPL team.

Frank Rijkaard said, “He hasn’t let me down, I’m with him. I can’t be disappointed with him because he’s given so much to the organization and to the team.”