Ronaldinho landed at Forlì airport on Thursday, drove the short stretch to Ravenna, and by Friday evening he was climbing on to a stage on the Adriatic beach at Marina di Ravenna in front of a Serie C club most of the football world could not have named a week ago.
The former Barcelona and AC Milan playmaker, a 2002 World Cup winner and 2005 Ballon d’Or recipient, has not played a professional match since turning out for Fluminense in September 2015. At 46, he is now back on a squad list, officially registered as a player for Ravenna FC by Cipriani after signing in June.
The pitch he is stepping on to is a long way from the Camp Nou or the San Siro. Ravenna finished third in Serie C Group B last season and have not played in Serie B since 2007-08.
‘If I score my 300th, it will be even more beautiful’
Ronaldinho arrived, in his own telling, more as a friend of the project than as a signing.
“I’m very happy to be here with friends, we have a team that can do something good,” he told the Marina di Ravenna crowd, according to a report syndicated by France24.
“If I could score my 300th goal, that would be even more beautiful.”
The 300-goal line is the emotional hook of the whole operation. Ronaldinho has not confirmed how many minutes, or how many matches, he will actually play; that call, he suggested, is not his.
“I don’t know, that depends on the president, on the trainer,” he told supporters. “I came here because of the friendship we have. We’ll wait for the squad to do well. I’m here to help.”
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Cipriani’s boyhood club, a Brazilian idol
The president in question is Ignazio Cipriani, the Italian-American restaurateur who took over Ravenna in 2024 and has made the Brazilian the centrepiece of a bigger brand push around his boyhood club. When the deal was announced in June, Ronaldinho put it in his own language.
“New colors, same smile. I cannot wait to dance with the ball and write a beautiful new story with Ignazio Cipriani and the Cipriani family,” he said in the club’s own announcement.
Speaking to reporters on his arrival in Italy, Ronaldinho circled back to that pull. “I’ve come here to help, to get the other players excited, to play a season,” he told Corriere dello Sport in Italian, adding that friendship with Cipriani and former Milan director Ariedo Braida, part of Ravenna’s set-up, had done the convincing.
Not for the Reggiana opener
The Brazilian will not feature when Ravenna open their Serie C season away to Reggiana on Monday. No debut date has been set. What has been set is the picture: a 46-year-old Ballon d’Or winner on an Italian beach, promising one more goal.
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