Ronaldinho played bongo drums until 2am at Barcelona – and almost led Lionel Messi astray
Ronaldinho’s late night bongo drums sessions almost had an influence on Lionel Messi, according to officials at Barcelona.
The Brazilian magician is still considered to be one of the finest footballers of his generation, dazzling fans and defenders with his sublime skills and devastating goals on the pitch. However, in his later years, the World Cup and Champions League winner’s activities away from the field began to catch up with him at the Nou Camp.
As the Catalans stagnated in the final years of Frank Rijkaard’s reign, Ronaldinho’s late night samba raves with his team-mates started grating with senior figures at the Nou Camp. While his individual brilliance meant the club forgave and tolerated his partying, their patience disappeared when they allegedly saw Messi, who was only a youngster at the time, was getting swept into the party lifestyle.
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Xavier Sala-I-Martin, Barcelona treasurer between 2006 and 2010, opened up about the frustrations they had with the sliky midfielder in the later years of his time at the club. Speaking as part of the BBC documentary ‘Pep Guardiola: Chasing Perfection’ Martin said: “Ronaldinho plays bongos until two in the morning every night.
“Everybody sees that. Everybody has cellular phones and takes pictures of him so everybody knows. We had a discipline problem.”
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The ex-Barcelona official then made an extremely bold claim, saying: “The amount of problems we had at the time. Ronaldinho was getting old, he’s partying all the time, trying to suck Messi into his lifestyle.”
It was this dressing room culture which eventually led to Rijkaard departing the club. The Dutch legend won the Champions League, two La Liga titles and two Spanish Super Cups during his five year spell between 2003 and 2008.
He would go on to be replaced by Guardiola, who was managing the Barcelona B-team at the time. However, if Martin had got his way, the now Manchester City manager would not have taken up position in the Barcelona dugout.
“[We thought] ‘How do you stop it,” Martin said. “‘Well, we need a sergeant, we need a general. Who is the greatest general in the world? Jose Mourinho.” As people like to say all the time, the rest is history.
