Sport is an activity impregnated with talented individuals because  it’s based on competition. An athlete has two primary obligations: one is to be in perfect physical shape and the other is to be in excellent technical state, all the time. In the professional world of sports, we can say that every athlete meets that demand. Beyond professionalism there are athletes with special talent and they are regarded as great by everyone. That is a superior status that lasts forever.

Sometimes it happens overnight, based on an exceptional performance of an unknown athlete; other times, it is developed, gradually, when the athlete’s  consistency, character and performance are too strong to be ignored. Either way, the conclusion is undeniable greatness and that is a professional level beyond degeneration, on a plateau reserved for a few ones – for the great. Time will pass, but their fame will stay forever. They will, always, belong  to the imaginary pantheon of great athletes. Ronaldinho Gaucho has that kind of history and that certain future. He is, today’s best soccer player in the world but, more than that: his talent is so superior that it will be a long time before a new player could be, honestly, compared with him. According to sports’ status quo, a new soccer player has to be named “best”, every year and a previous winner has to step down from the makeshift plateau, when the time is up.

That fiasco is not so obvious when the transition is made by most athletes, but, in 2009, it involved Ronaldinho Gaucho and, for a while, it seemed to indicate that a plot was being created against the phenomenal athlete in order to diminish his obvious favoritism. That went on for several months, when he was being kept out of games while deceiving rumors about his “decadent career” took place. I created a blog on Golden Foot site to condemn that nonsense and, fortunately, other people added their comments of support. Ronaldinho, finally, won the Golden Foot award, which is supposed to be soccer’s official immortalizing achievement.

The selective process to elect the best soccer player is not secure because club executives try to manipulate it by pushing their unworthy athletes into that supreme competition to raise their status as “the world’s best soccer player.” Ronaldinho is immortal, with or without any award. His playing ability transcends eras of soccer history and places him next to all time great such as Pele, Garrincha, Nilton Santos, Didi, Leonidas, Jair, Zizinho,
Maradona and Di Stefano, among others.

Unfortunately, greatness is easily disregarded and mediocrity is a ticket to celebrity. In the actual confuse world, great athletes like Ronaldinho can be robed of their right to reign in the game they were born for. Fortunately in 2009, Ronaldinho’s support from around the world was protective enough to abort the conspiracy against his selection as the winner of the Golden Foot Award. I just hope his fans will be ready to defend his greatness until it is justified and to demand recognition of his majesty over other soccer players.
MAYUTO CORREA

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