Be Like Ronaldinho is all about helping others become great
players just like Ronaldinho. Plus the blog covers all the important
matches going on for Barcelona FC and you can read some of my rants,
tips and tricks on how to play better.
The main reason I started this blog back in March was to teach others how to play football like Ronaldinho. This meant I would have to create some sort of guide to help footballers visiting this website understand the various secrets and techniques that Ronnie has in his repertoire. I’ve done this with the Be Like Ronaldinho Book and I must say I’m glad with what has been produced, however, it brings me to point of asking, is imitating someone really the best way to go if you want to be a great player?
At First Yes, Later On No
Yes because, by imitation you learn a wonderful technique that has taken this footballer 10+ years to learn. Later on, when you’ve mastered this technique imitation becomes something that you cannot go back to, because as a footballer it is your duty to come up with new and exciting plays, without having to borrow off other players. This is what can make you a truly great footballer, the idea of individuality. Personally, I love to please a crowd of fans because they’ve come to watch a great game of football being played out and if I can show them skills that have taken me countless hours to perfect that’s great, but when I show them something they haven’t seen before, at any level, then that’s something special I have and you can too.
Ronaldinho vs Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Both are my favourite players and both do the Elastico as one of their trademark moves. Now, both have varied styles of executing this technique and both ways I have seen are rather effective. At one stage or another, both had to imitate this move to get it right, but then after mastering the technique, they added their own little touch to it. Zlatan like to run along the sideline when doing this whereas Ronaldinho likes to pull this move off near the corners and the goal line, with near stationary position. Like I said before if it works for them and it will work for you also. If you imitate, then put your own spin on it, the crowd will love you for it because they’re seeing something new. But nothing beats a technique you’ve come up with all by yourself, but I’ll leave that one for another time. For now, here’s a video of Zlatan and Ronaldinho, showcasing their differences and similarities.
Note: Ronaldinho is currently fulfilling international duties to play with Brazil.
I don’t think I’ve ever talked about the art of diving on the football field before, but it’s something that needs to be talked about because it’s always controversial. I don’t care what anyone says, I think it is just outright wrong and gives the game of football a bad name. Not only does it make football players look like, pardon me, pussies, it also brings heartache and anger for the opposing team to receive the shorter end of the stick. I can first hand tell you the frustrating nature of seeing a footballer take a dive when you tackle them fairly. You just want to pick up the player and slap them across the face, in order to say, get a hold of yourself!
Professionals Are Good At It
Recently, during the Chelsea vs Liverpool match which was played the other day, a pass which was going to Drogba was left by Malouda, but Liverpool defender Agger went in to challenge the ball and Malouda dived, resulting in a poor penalty decision. This was then converted by Lampard, leaving Liverpool with a undesirable 1-1 draw. Another incident that plays over and over again in Australian hearts is the match we had against Italy. In the dying stages of the match, defender Lucas Neill challenged the ball to find he had slid past the attacker Grosso and out of his way. The Italian then dived over him as to say Neill was holding him down. That is my interpretation of it. You can find the video below.
It still pains me to watch that video to this day because I honestly think we were hard done by. But you can now see the consequences of diving and the impact that has. Grosso’s dive cost Australia their place in World Cup history and people here still talk about that match to this day. On the other hand, Grosso not only put Italy through to the next round, he contributed to his country and Italy ended up winning the whole thing. It is very interesting to see that the game of football can favour those who play unjust and unfairly, like any game, but it is our job as footballer to strive to toughen up and not go down as easily as the Italians in this case.
P.S I’ve got nothing against Italians, it was just the best example I could use
