Ronaldinho

Everton winger Gerard Deulofeu can only think of two people, ever, who he'd like to have dinner with. Can you guess which two?

In a Q&A with The Times, Deulofeu gifted us with this delightful exchange"

Question: Which three people would you like to have round for dinner?

Ronaldinho is coming back, at least for one more game. The Brazilian attacking midfielder hasn't retired fro soccer yet, and he says he wants to play one more year. He claims to have offers in MLS and China, but before he goes to either of those places 'Dinho is going to make an appearance for Mexican third-division club Cinco Estrellas in a friendly against Monterrey in December.

He announced his apearance in a video on the Cinco Estrellas facebook page.

It’s a rumor that’s been circulating since last September, when Ronaldinho left Brazilian side Fluminense and became a free agent: would he take the millions on offer in China? Would he become another poster child, albeit a 36-year-old one, for MLS? Wherever he ended up, it was a guarantee that he’d ignite a fan base, sell thousands of tickets and jerseys, and delight with his non-diminishing levels of skill.

The legend himself, Ronaldinho, returned to action in the Premier Futsal 2016 tournament in India, and we're glad to say that he's still got it. Ronaldinho's Goa team may have lost 4-2 to Hernan Crespo and Kolkata to start the tournament, but there was still plenty to smile about as Dinho provided some moments of pure class. 

And here we were thinking that football was over until August 3rd and the start of the Rio Summer Olympics tournament. The latest news from India is the announcement of the inaugural Premier Futsal League to be hosted in the cities of Chennai and Goa.

Former Brazilian international Deco is one of the few people on the planet who has had the pleasure of playing on the same team as Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho. So when he says that Ronaldinho had more talent than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, we are forced to take him more seriously than we would almost any other person in the world.

It’s the kind of popular legend that is usually attributed to a “friend of a friend” and rooted in invention and fantasy, a cheap tale to explain the otherworldly. When professional football freestyler Billy Wingrove met Ronaldinho as part of Nike’s Joga Bonito advertising campaign, he said: “I’ve got two questions. One, is there a heaven? Two, how did he [Ronaldinho] get this good?”

Ronaldinho is going to be a movie star. An action movie star. In a movie. With Mike Tyson in it. Apologies for the sentence fragments so far, but my brain has exploded. It's the best I can do, given the circumstances.

The circumstances, for those interested are that 'Dinho is going to be in a movie called Kickboxer: Retaliation alongside Mike Tyson, the dude who played "The Mountain" on Game of Thrones and Alain Moussi.