“To achieve their dreams.” Ronaldinho reveals the secret of his return to the field at the age of 46 | sports

Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho confirmed that his return to the field at the age of forty-six aims to leave a positive impact and inspire younger generations to continue pursuing their dreams, stressing that he hopes that his new experience will give others the motivation to achieve their ambitions, as he did during his busy career.

Ronaldinho said in statements to Reuters: “I hope that this matter will have a positive impact as much as possible, and that others will also get the motivation to continue and have the opportunity to achieve their dreams, just as I achieved my dreams,” adding: “I hope that this will have a positive impact.”

Ronaldinho expressed his happiness with this new experience, saying: “Throughout these years, and the friendship that unites us with the Cipriani family and all our friends, this opportunity has now appeared, so I am very happy and we hope that things will go well.”

He added: “We have been friends for many years, so it was simple, direct and easy. We both want Raveena to do very well and for things to go great. We share very similar ideas, and that is why we are doing this together.”

The Brazilian star appeared during the presentation ceremony wearing all-white clothes, where he took pictures next to Ravenna’s new shirt that was placed on top of the Golden Ball award that he won in 2005, before he signed the shirt in the presence of club owner Ignazio Cipriani.

For his part, club owner Ignazio Cipriani, who bought the Ravenna club in 2024 with ambitions to lead it to the Italian First Division in the future, explained that including Ronaldinho represents the fulfillment of his childhood dream.

“He inspired me and my entire generation to fall in love with the sport because of the things he was doing, which were completely different from anyone else playing the game,” Cipriani said. “So playing like him was always a dream and an inspiration.”

He added that the presence of the Brazilian star will give the club a great boost on the media and public levels, saying: “I believe that his mere presence with us will make Ravenna a much bigger club. This has given us a tremendous level of public relations and media coverage that we would not have obtained otherwise.”

He concluded by saying: “It will bring a lot of joy to the city, and I hope things go great.”

These statements come as the Brazilian star prepares to return to official competitions after retiring and signing with Ravenna, a club competing in the Italian third division, in a move that brought back memories of one of the most prominent players in football history.

The 2005 Ballon d’Or winner played his last match at the club level for Fluminense in 2015, before being away from the field for more than a decade, but his famous smile, which made part of his global popularity, is still very present among fans of the game.

Although Ravenna is a relatively modest club and its stadium has a capacity of just over 12,000 spectators, and its name is not widely known outside Italy, the signing of Ronaldinho has put the club located in the Emilia-Romagna region under the spotlight.