{"id":17619,"date":"2026-11-14T12:45:47","date_gmt":"2026-11-14T12:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/14\/truly-beautiful-to-make-football-return-says-ronaldinho\/"},"modified":"2026-11-14T12:45:47","modified_gmt":"2026-11-14T12:45:47","slug":"truly-beautiful-to-make-football-return-says-ronaldinho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/14\/truly-beautiful-to-make-football-return-says-ronaldinho\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Truly beautiful\u2019 to make football return, says Ronaldinho"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"576\" height=\"518\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u2018Truly-beautiful-to-make-football-return-says-Ronaldinho.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"\u2018Truly beautiful\u2019 to make football return, says Ronaldinho\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u2018Truly-beautiful-to-make-football-return-says-Ronaldinho.jpg 576w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/image-94-300x270.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 576px) 100vw, 576px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brazilian great Ronaldinho says it will be \u201ctruly beautiful\u201d to make his return to the pitch on Sunday, 11 years after retirement, when he plays for Italian third-tier side Ravenna.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 46-year-old, who last played for Fluminense in 2015, will start for Ravenna in their local derby against Forli.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to have a great day. I\u2019m happy to be here for the start of this wonderful story,\u201d Ronaldinho told Sky Sports on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe president dreams of something big for Ravenna, and being a part of it makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ravenna president Ignazio Cipriani has said his goal is to take the club to Serie A for the first time in their history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team\u2019s Stadio Bruno Benelli, which usually holds 5,000 fans, is sold out, with a 1,800-capacity temporary stand \u2014 dubbed \u201cR10\u201d \u2014 also erected for the occasion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ravenna, who have not even played in Serie B since 2008, are second in their group in Serie C, six points behind leaders Spezia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cReturning to the pitch after so much time is truly beautiful \u2014 I\u2019m here to experience a special moment in my life,\u201d added Ronaldinho.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s been a few years since I stopped playing \u2014 I\u2019ve won everything I ever dreamed of.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNow I\u2019m 46, and I\u2019ve experienced everything there is to experience in football. This is a completely different kind of opportunity. I want to be part of the dream held by my friends who work for Ravenna.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 2005 Ballon d\u2019Or winner will be hoping to score his 300th career goal, over a decade after he netted his 299th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star has even spent time in a Paraguayan prison since, after attempting to enter the country on a false passport, but did star in a prison futsal match.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The move to Ravenna is widely regarded as a marketing stunt, but one Cipriani hopes can help kickstart his Serie A dream.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe long-term goal is to get Ravenna promoted to Serie A,\u201d insisted the club president.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/11\/truly-beautiful-to-make-football-return-says-ronaldinho\/\">\u2018Truly beautiful\u2019 to make football return, says Ronaldinho<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brazilian great Ronaldinho says it will be \u201ctruly beautiful\u201d to make his return to the pitch on Sunday, 11 years after retirement, when he plays for Italian third-tier side Ravenna.&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17620,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}