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want to sign Nice midfielder Jean Michael Seri for a fee of £35m, but the 26-yearold Ivory Coast international is expected to wait and see who is Blues boss next season.

LEFT-BACK Luke Shaw has yet to make a decision about h is future at Manchester United. The 22-yearold will consider his options at the end of the season, after having a difficult relationship with manager Jose Mourinho.

BARCELONA are lining up a £60m move for Manchester United’s French striker Anthony Martial, 22, with Fulham’s Ryan Sessegnon, 17, also reportedly on their radar.

LIVERPOOL and Tottenham were among a host of Premier League sides to send scouts to watch Benfica’s Serbian winger Andrija Zivkovic in Sunday’s top-of-the-table Primeira Liga clash with Porto.

TOTTENHAM manager Mauricio Pochettino believes the shorter summer transfer window will be a “massive advantage” to Spurs’ ability to make a fast start to the season.

HUDDERSFIELD will offer manager David Wagner a new, improved two-year deal. The 46-year-old has been linked with a return to Borussia Dortmund.

BARCELONA and Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta, 33, is a target for Chinese Super League clubs Tianjin Quanjian and Chongqing Dangdai.

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Ifirst glimpsed the figure at a distance but was sure it was him. There was something about the way he walked that I’d first seen as a star-struck 13-year-old. He wasn’t the small-sized guy I imagined, but quite a well-built fella. And when he came and sat next to me, like it was the most natural thing to do, for about a minute I just stared at him in total awe, like I’d just met God.

Calmly, he gave me a pat on the shoulder. Maybe it was his way of telling me that he appreciated the way I looked at him, or maybe it was just an indication I should start the interview right away.

There is no footballer I feel more privileged to have seen dominating the sport I’ve been glued to since 1995 than Ronaldinho. He has been dancing to his own Samba beat since the very start of his football career, a legacy that has been just as much about the joy of football as joga bonito.

That is the main reason he’s adored the world over, not just in Barcelona, Milan and Brazil, and why he inspired a whole generation. He wasn’t just an outstanding footballer, he definitely looked like he enjoyed being that great footballer too. If few players have been quite as much fun to watch, even fewer have had quite as much fun being watched.

“My only concern is having fun, and that has always been my sole concern on the pitch,” was the first sentence I heard him say. During the whole interview, conducted through an interpreter, Ronaldinho had a pair of sunglasses on. Maybe it was the partying at Zouk the night before, or maybe it was just the Malaysian sunlight. Ronaldinho’s skills dazzled in a way that no one had seen before. Not even Lionel Messi, his successor at Barcelona, can snatch the crown as the king of the showboat. And before I forget, he also won the World Cup. By proving a success at Barcelona, he was following in the footsteps of one of his many idols. Some may say that he reached a different height during his playing carer, but Ronnie seemed hesitant about it, and said that there were many great players in his book. “I believe every great was the best of their respective generation, so I don’t like to compare anyone. Players like Pele, Diego Maradona, Romario, Luis Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and Lionel Messi were the best of their era so there is no specific best of all time for me because it is hard to pinpoint that one player above the rest. “I was fortunate enough to play alongside the likes of Ronaldo, Cafu, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, and also play against Roberto Baggio, Zidane and these are all my idols. Like I said before, my generation produced a lot of great players and I don’t like to compare. I was just fortunate to be playing in that era,” he added in a voice that made him sound like a Portuguesespeaking Morgan Freeman. “I mean, there were 20 players fighting to win the Ballon d’Or then, and today there are far fewer who fit into that category,” said the last man to win the Ballon d’Or before the duopoly we see today between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, who, in this writer’s opinion, don’t quite have the unique flair, technique and unpredictability of Ronaldinho. “That being said, I want more good players to appear and be out there competing. Because the more great players you have on the pitch the more people will respect the game and the longer the game would stay,” he said. It was because of Ronaldinho’s move to Barcelona, that weeks later, Manchester United brought in a young Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronnie also played a very important role to Messi. So, Messi or Ronaldo? That is the definitive question that every interviewer will ask so I did the same. “I believe that both are great players. Each of them has a different individual style but I prefer the way that Messi plays. It is a personal choice nothing else.” During the interview, Ronnie said it is very hard for someone from his generation to say which team was the best or which team is the hardest he had faced. “Every team during that era was just so good. Real Madrid, for example, their starting 11 were just stars, the Galaticos. “Even teams like Manchester United, AC and Inter Milan, Juventus and Bayern Munich were all filled with superstars. “So it is impossible for me to say which team were the best. Back then, there were many, many players.

“But it is good to see Paris St Germain following suit. They are way ahead in the French League and although they weren’t lucky in the Champions League, they definitely have the investment to become a great team and win the Champions League soon.”

Ronaldinho, with all that trickery and showboating, said he faced only one rock in his career. That rock is the Italian and AC Milan legend, Paolo Maldini. In the words of Ronnie: “Maldini is the most complete defender I have played against… man, he is good!”

As he didn’t want to single out an individual, I asked him who were the best 11 that he has played with, and the answer seemed pretty simple and obvious.

“The Selecao 2002 World Cup team, that was the most complete team I have played with,” said Ronnie, looking at his manager who indicated my 30-minute one-on-one was up.

While his idols Ronaldo and Rivaldo dominated the headlines in the early games of the 2002 World Cup, few will forget how a young Ronnie stole the show in the quarterfinal against England.

From the dribble from halfway, the stepover that bamboozled Ashley Cole and the pass to Rivaldo for Brazil’s first goal, and the most important of all, the the 40-yard freekick to flummox David Seaman.

“We had planned that all along. We (the Brazilian team) had watched many videos of Seaman, and we knew how he positions himself on the field. So that was something we had already planned for, just waiting for the right time to execute it.”

With Russia 2018 nearing, I couldn’t help but ask him what he thinks of the upcoming World Cup.

“The thing about the Cup is there are a lot of surprises that may take place. I believe Brazil has a really strong team this year.

“We will have a very good campaign and fight for the title. But in the World Cup, anything can happen and that is why it is very hard to say,” said Ronnie.

For almost 20 years, the world has seen and loved Ronaldinho’s talent on the football field. The chance to relive it all with the legend himself was an absolute privilege.

“Thanks for the interview,” he cheerily says to theSun as the chat comes to an end. And being the friendly person he is, hugs me and bids his farewell.

* The interview was organised by Heineken, for whom Ronaldinho is an ambassador. Heineken are the official beer sponsors for the Champions League and brought the trophy to Malaysia to give fans the opportunity to get up close and personal with both Old Big Ears and the players who accompanied it.