Rijkaard Not Worried About Ronaldinho

There have been some rather unflattering photos of Ronaldinho and his expanding tummy in the papers recently but Frank Rijkaard, the Barcelona manager, has tried to play down fears surrounding the fitness of his Brazilian star.

Ronny has, by the very high standards he has set, had an inconsistent season so far. However he produced one of his best performances of the campaign to help silence the doubters in Barca’s 3-0 home win over Athletic Bilbao.

Rijkaard laughed off the photographs of Ronaldinho after Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League defeat to Liverpool that appeared to show the player overweight. There were also photographs in this weekend’s papers comparing that one from Wednesday night to how he has looked in the past. Those photos showed a different looking Ronaldinho. One with a very toned physique in comparison.

Rijkaard said of the photo, “When the photo is taken quite close by, with inadequate light or if there is some movement, it can vary the reality a lot and, in this instance, for me there are doubts. [Hmm, Frank obviously didn't see the same picture I did then. "inadequate light", "some movement", who's he trying to kid?]

“In any case, we have a medical team who always control the physical state of the players and, when there is something brought to their attention, they work with the player to resolve it.

“The player has always given great performances, and I have total confidence in him and we should be happy to have him with us. I think he is as he always is, cheerful and unaffected. For me, there’s no problem.”

I’m not so sure Frank. I think Ronny could be thinking it’s about time for a new challenge. Anyone fancy Milan then?

The Soccer Blogger