Ronaldinho Celebrates His 40th Birthday In Jail

Ronaldinho spent his time on the pitch dodging defenders and his post-football career evading the law.

But the Brazilian superstar will spend his 40th birthday in a Paraguayan prison today with the biggest challenge of his life threatening to shackle him to a six-month jail sentence.

The former PSG, Barcelona and Milan playmaker won the 2005 Ballon D’Or, the 2002 World Cup – after beating David Seaman with a famous free-kick – and the 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal.

He is arguably among the three best Brazilian players to follow Pele along with Ronaldo and Neymar. But Ronaldinho was the undisputed best at Samba-style partying.

His lawyer Adolfo Marín claimed: “He could have entered Paraguay with his Brazilian papers. He thought he had received special Paraguayan documents. He didn’t know he was committing a crime, because he didn’t understand he’d been given false documents. He’s stupid.”