CELEBRITY
Brazil great Ronaldinho launching worldwide street soccer league
Brazil great Ronaldinho is launching a worldwide street soccer league to give talented young players an opportunity to showcase their skills and follow the same path to stardom as the former Barcelona player.
The Ronaldinho Global Street League will begin in “late 2023,” organizers said Saturday, and will initially feature a social media tryout process where street soccer players of all ages can upload their best skills and tricks in a bid to join one of the competition’s teams.
Head-to-head matches and skills competitions will be staged in major cities across the world and teams will compete in a league for the title of “RGSL Champions” and to become part of what will be called the Ronaldinho Globe Street Team.
“We believe there is massive value in the space — and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to support the players of the future,” Ronaldinho said in announcing the venture.
There were no specifics about the likely location of the events or the precise start time.
Ronaldinho, a two-time world player of the year, has linked up with sports agent and former player Roberto de Assis Moreira and Sophie Watts, the co-founder of Mike Tyson’s Legends League, to launch the league.
“Ronaldinho and I grew up in an underprivileged community in Brazil,” Moreira said. “We know first-hand the power of street football in empowering youth and are fully dedicated to discovering and supporting street soccer players around the world through RGSL.”
-AP
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo launched his YouTube channel on Wednesday and hundreds of thousands of subscribers signed up within a couple of hours.
The 39-year-old five-times Ballon D’Or winner plays for Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr.
“The wait is over. My @YouTube channel is finally here! SIUUUbscribe and join me on this new journey,” Ronaldo posted on his social media accounts.
A couple of hours after posting his first video, 1.69M subscribers had joined he channel.
Ronaldo has 112.5 million followers on the X platform, 170 million on Facebook and 636 million on Instagram.
The former Real Madrid and Manchester United player is preparing for his team’s Saudi Pro League opener against Al-Raed on Thursday.
-Reuters
Inter Miami will be the last club Argentina captain Lionel Messi plays for, the 36-year-old forward said on Wednesday, adding he feels “a little bit scared” at the thought of the day he decides to retire.
Messi, a World Cup winner with Argentina in 2022, has a contract with the Major League Soccer side until 2025 following his arrival last summer after a spell with French champions Paris St Germain.
“Inter Miami will be my last club. I love playing football. I enjoy everything even more because I am aware that there is less and less left,” Messi told ESPN.
“I’m not ready to leave football. I’ve done this all my life, I love playing football, I enjoy training, the day-to-day, the matches… And yes, there’s always a little bit of fear that it’s all over.”
The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi is preparing with his national team to defend their Copa America title, with the tournament kicking off on June 20 in the United States.
Argentina will take on Canada in the opening match before facing Group A rivals Chile on June 25 and Peru four days later.
-Reuters
Bidding began on Wednesday for a napkin on which soccer club Barcelona penned a promise to sign a 13-year-old Lionel Messi – who went on to become one of the game’s greatest players – with early bids reaching almost $300,000.
The napkin was signed in December 2000 when Carles Rexach, then Barcelona’s sporting director, agreed with agent Horacio Gaggioli to recruit the Argentine teenager who went on to become the club’s all-time top scorer.
Bidding for the document, described by auction house Bonhams as “blue ink on a standard Spanish waxy napkin,” was at 220,000 pounds ($274,824.00) shortly after the sale opened, according to the auctioneer’s website.
The online sale closes on May 17 and has a guide price of between 300,000 and 500,000 pounds.
“It was never legally binding, but emotionally it represents the deep link or the beginning of the deep link, that Messi had with Barcelona,” said Bonhams Chief Marketing Officer Marc Sands.
Messi helped Barcelona win 35 titles, making a record 782 appearances and scoring 674 goals. Messi left Barcelona in 2021 and now plays for Inter Miami.
“If you love football, you’ll know all about Lionel Messi and you will know that he defined football for generations. If you want a slice of that action, this is the thing to get,” Sands said.
-Reuters
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