Wednesday March 21, 2007

The more ordinary Milan’s on-field performances become, the more we seem to hear about Ronaldinho. It was the same story this weekend. A drab 1-0 win over slumping Atalanta rapidly followed by yet more speculation that the big-bucked Brazilian could soon be joining his illustrious compatriots at Milanello.

Some say that Silvio Berlusconi’s Press machine is behind all the talk, to distract frustrated fans with promises of jam tomorrow. Why, after all, would Barcelona let a 26-year-old superstar, shirt-selling machine, with three years left on his contract go? But while the odds on Rossoneri pulling off this particular signing are longer than a night out with Freddie Flintoff, there are some very good reasons why it just might happen.

First off, we’ve all noticed that Ronaldinho’s not been at his best of late. He barely showed up for the game against Liverpool, Los Cules’ biggest of the season so far. He looks like a change could do him good and after seeing his idea of a suitable contract extension – £10m-per-year until 2014 – some at Barca would say the same goes for the club. He may single handedly sell 70 per cent of all Barcelona jersey’s right now, but who’s to say in a year or two? With Lionel Messi in place, and talk of other big names arriving, surely it’s better to sell up and cash in the £50m of Berlusconi’s money?

For now, Milan will only repeat that they’re in pole position if Ronaldinho does come on the market, but that, ultimately, they don’t think he will. We’ll see. Certainly there are a number of interesting precedents for this story. Back in the 1960s, for example, few thought Luis Suarez would leave Spain for Italy, but leave Luisito did, joining Inter for a then world-record fee. In the 80s then, there was Napoli’s stunning raid for Diego Maradona and more recently Ronaldo himself, plucked from La Liga by Inter again.

It’s worth noting that these three stories all share one thing in common – in each case the club the player left was Barcelona. So while it’s far from certain that it’ll happen again, don’t be too surprised if this time Berlusconi’s promises turn out to be true.

One final note – if I were Ronaldinho I’d think long and hard before joining a club that didn’t offer Champions League football, which means that perhaps the biggest obstacle to his arrival could lie in Milan themselves, and their so far faltering attempts to crack Serie A’s top four.