Headliner
Brazilian held in Paraguayan prison
Ronaldinho
Saturday March 21 was not the 40th birthday that Ronaldinho had imagined. It would seem fair to assume that he’d been looking forward to spending the day with close friends and family, perhaps some other glamorous company, with a barbecue and music and dancing and life – and freedom, always freedom.
With a ball at his feet Ronaldinho illustrated maybe better than anyone else the liberating possibilities of football, the chance the sport opens up of joyful selfexpression, of freeing the inner child.
And now the symbol of liberty is behind bars as he spent the landmark occasion in a Paraguayan prison.
The train of events is truly baffling. Ronaldinho had no need of a passport to visit Paraguay as his Brazilian ID card would have been enough. And he began his journey at Sao Paulo airport presenting his ID card. But on arrival in Paraguay he, and his older brother and manager Assis, did something different. They presented Paraguayan passports, documents which had been requested for two women and which had subsequently the details changed.
This set off a conflict within the Paraguayan authorities. Some may have been involved in the fraud, others appeared happy to let him do as he pleased so long as he posed for a selfie.
Others felt that a passport is a serious document and the country was running the risk of looking ridiculous – and it was this faction that won out, with the star placed under arrest while the case is investigated. And considered a flight risk he was kept in jail rather than under house arrest, playing in prison football tournaments, doing some carpentry and no doubt yearning for his freedom.
Were Ronaldinho and his brother really in the process of taking out Paraguayan citizenship? This usually requires a threeyear period of residency and would entail surrendering his Brazilian nationality. Did the two passports really cost $6,000 each? And if so, who paid and why?
These all seem like squalid little questions on the 40th birthday of one of the world’s great entertainers. And through it all Ronaldinho seemed totally bemused – a point made by his own defence lawyer.
That childish smile, once so infectious, now seems wholly inadequate to deal with the complexities of the world. He seems trapped in a permanent state of “little brother-hood”, with Assis making the decisions.
Maybe the Brazilian government will pull some strings. After all, the man who was caught using a doctored Paraguayan passport was just a few months ago named as an informal ambassador for Brazilian tourism.
That childish smile, once so infectious, now seems wholly inadequate to deal with the complexities of the world