When Arsenal nearly signed Ronaldinho

A rising star, and a familiar suitor

By 1999, Ronaldinho was already the talk of Brazilian football. As an 18-year-old at Grêmio he had scored 22 goals in 47 matches and produced a performance against Internacional's World Cup-winning captain Dunga that would be replayed for years - flicking the ball over his head, leaving him rooted to the spot with a mazy dribble. It was the kind of showreel that travels fast, and it reached England.

Arsenal, then managed by Arsène Wenger and building a reputation for spotting continental talent early, expressed interest in signing him in 2001. It was the sort of swoop the club had made its trademark under Wenger, and on paper Ronaldinho looked exactly like the raw, thrillingly gifted young player he liked to develop.

Why it fell through

The move collapsed not because of a rejected bid or a change of heart, but because of bureaucracy. Ronaldinho was a non-EU player, and at that point he had not accumulated enough caps for the Brazil senior side to qualify for a work permit under the rules then in place. Without it, Arsenal simply could not register him, and the transfer went no further.

With Highbury off the table, an alternative briefly presented itself: a loan spell in Scotland with St Mirren of the Scottish Premier League. That, too, never happened - Ronaldinho instead became entangled in a fake passport scandal back in Brazil, and the loan plan was abandoned before it could take shape.

The path he took instead

Instead of England or Scotland, Ronaldinho's next move took him to France. Later in 2001 he signed a five-year deal with Paris Saint-Germain in a transfer worth around €5 million, arriving in Paris to join a dressing room that already featured Jay-Jay Okocha and Nicolas Anelka. It was there that his European career properly began, ahead of the switch to Barcelona in 2003 that would define his prime years - two league titles, a Champions League triumph, a Ballon d'Or, and a status as one of the most watchable footballers of his generation.

A near-miss worth remembering

It's easy, with hindsight, to file the collapsed Arsenal move under footnote rather than headline. But it's a reminder of how differently a career can bend on paperwork rather than talent. Had the permit come through, an English audience might have watched Ronaldinho's genius unfold at Highbury rather than the Camp Nou. Instead, the Premier League missed out on a player who would go on to win virtually everything the game has to offer - a World Cup, a Copa América, a Confederations Cup, the Champions League, the Copa Libertadores and the Ballon d'Or - the only man ever to collect all six.