I was born on March 21, 1980 in Porto Alegre, Brazil. I am better known as "Ronaldinho" (Little Ronaldo).Making a name for myself as the top scorer at the Under-17 world championship in Egypt, I began my professional career at Grmio, and played there from 1998-2001. In my Brazilian national team debut on June 26, 1999, I scored my first international goal, against Paraguay, to win the Copa Amrica. To date, I have won 34 caps for Brazil, scoring 13 goals.In 2001, I signed a five-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain. The manager of PSG thought that I was too focused on the Paris nightlife rather than football. I started playing at the beginning of the 01/02 season due to a protracted legal battle between PSG and Grmio over the transfer fee. Grmio finally received $4.5 million.In 2002, I helped Brazil win the World Cup. One of the highlights of the tournament was a spectacular 35-metre lob I scored against England in the quarter-finals.In 2003, I made it known I wanted to leave PSG after they failed to qualify for European competition. That set off a bidding war among the elite clubs for my services. On July 19, FC Barcelona snapped me up for 27 million Euro, trumping Manchester United. I justified their purchase, leading them to a second-place finish in the Spanish first division during the 03/04 season.Together with Samuel Eto'o, Deco, Henrik Larsson and Ludovic Giuly, we comprise part of an awesome strike force which has led Bara to the top of the Spanish league with a large gap down to second place.On December 20, 2004, I was named FIFA World Player of the Year over Thierry Henry and Andriy Shevchenko.
