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‘Can I really get money out?’ – Ronaldinho had no idea he could withdraw cash from a bank aged 35, claims ex-team-mate

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A FORMER teammate of Ronaldinho has revealed the Brazilian soccer legend was clueless about how to get money out of his bank aged 35.

Ex-Derby County striker Emanuel Villa said the former Barcelona and AC Milan star asked an accountant at the Mexican club they were playing for to lend him cash because he didn’t know he could withdraw it from his own account.

Ronaldinho ‘didn’t know he could go to the bank and take money out of his own account’, according to VillaCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The star’s brother ‘handled everything’ said his former team-mateCredit: Getty – Contributor

Ronaldinho, now 41, was the face of Mexican bank Multiva at the time and was  showing off his sublime football skills in TV ads where he would say ‘I’ve always liked winning and I like to see my money growing and that’s why my bank is Multi’.

Villa, who played alongside the 2005 Ballon d’Or winner at Queretaro, told podcast Tiki Taka MX: “His brother who always accompanied him in Mexico left to make a quick trip to Miami and Ronaldinho needed money.

“After training finished he went to see the club accountant and said to him, ‘Do you have £1,000 you can lend me?’

“The accountant asked him why and he explained his brother had left town and hadn’t left him any cash to pay for something he needed to buy.

“The club worker told Ronaldinho he could sort something out and was happy to lend him the money but offered to take him to the bank, Multiva, which he was the face of.

WHe said to him, ‘You have your account there which we pay your salary into and you can withdraw what you want from there’.

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“Ronaldinho replied, ‘Can I really go and get money out?’ and the accountant replied, ‘Of course, that’s where your salary gets paid every fortnight and the account’s in your name and you’re the face of the bank.’”

Argentina-born Villa, who scored nine goals in his 53 appearances for the Rams after signing for the club in January 2008, added: “The anecdote is funny but what it shows me is serious ignorance when it comes to life things.

“This 35-year-old man didn’t know he could go to the bank and take money out of his own account.

“What we saw and were able to experience was someone whose brother handled everything.

“It was like, ‘How much do you need? A million Mexican pesos? Here you go. Do what you want with it’.

“We never asked Ronaldinho about credit cards. Just imagine, a 35-year-old who’s been the phenomenon he was on a football field but doesn’t have a clue about taking money out of his own account.

“It’s something that left a lasting impression on me because I began to understand a lot of things about these world figures.

“Everything’s portrayed as rosy in their lives and many times it’s not like that.”

LIVED IN A FISHBOWL

Villa made his comments after revealing Ronaldinho, who signed a two-year contract with Queretaro in September 2014 but left the Mexican club the following June, lived in a fishbowl and couldn’t socialise like ‘normal footballers’.

The former Brazil international and his brother Roberto de Assis Moreira were jailed in Paraguay in March 2020 over a fake passport scandal.

They entered the landlocked South American country with doctored passports falsely showing they were naturalised Paraguayan citizens. The travel documents had been issued to two women before being modified.

They were forced to stay in Paraguay for nearly six months – doing a month in jail then moving to a hotel as part of a house arrest agreement – before being told they would not be put on trial after their lawyer struck a deal with prosecutors which was rubber-stamped by a judge.

Roberto was freed with a criminal record after pleading guilty to using a false document and being given a suspended prison sentence.

The siblings were ordered to pay around £153k in compensation, with Ronaldinho having to pay £68k of the total and his brother the rest.

Ronaldinho’s lawyer Adolfo Marin branded the former footballer ‘stupid’ after his arrest, claiming he had been given his Paraguayan passport as a ‘gift’ and gave it to an official without thinking when he reached the country because it was the ‘first thing he got out of his bag’.

The Brazilian starred at Barcelona with Lionel Messi before later signing with QueretaroCredit: Rex Features

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk

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