Ronaldinho's Club career

Club career
Early career:
Ronaldinho's career began with the Grêmio youth squad under head coach Liam Higgins. He made his senior side debut during the 1998 Copa Libertadores. In 2001, Arsenal expressed interest in signing Ronaldinho, but the move collapsed after he could not obtain a work permit because he was a non-EU player who had not played enough international matches. He considered playing on loan with Scottish Premier League side St. Mirren, which never happened due to his involvement in a fake passport scandal in Brazil. In 2001, Ronaldinho signed a five-year contract with French side Paris Saint-Germain in a €5.1 million transfer.
During the 2001-02 season, Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Fernández claimed that Ronaldinho was too focused on the Parisian nightlife rather than football, and complained that his holidays in Brazil never ended at the scheduled times. In 2003, less than two years into his PSG stint, Ronaldinho made it clear he wanted to leave the club after PSG failed to qualify for any European competition.

Barcelona:
Originally, Barcelona president Joan Laporta had promised to bring David Beckham to the club, but following his transfer to Real Madrid, Barcelona entered the running for Ronaldinho and outbid Manchester United for his signature in a €32,250,000 transfer. He made his team debut in a friendly against Milan at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C, scoring one goal in a 2-0 victory. After suffering from injury during the first half of the campaign, he returned and helped lead Barcelona to a second-place league finish.
Ronaldinho won his first league title in 2004-05, and was named FIFA World Player of the Year on 20 December 2004. In 2005, Ronaldinho received his second consecutive honour of FIFA World Player of the Year, beating Chelsea's Frank Lampard and fellow Barça player Samuel Eto'o. On 8 March 2005, Barcelona was eliminated from the UEFA Champions League by Chelsea in the first knockout round, with Ronaldinho scoring both goals in a 4-2 loss.
With his contract expiring in 2008, Ronaldinho was offered an extension until 2014 that would have net him £85 million over nine years, but he turned it down. In September 2005, he signed a two-year extension that contained a minimum-fee release clause that allowed him to leave should a club make an offer to Barcelona of at least £85 million for him.

Ronaldinho was chosen for the UEFA Team of the Year for the third consecutive time in January 2006, and he contributed one goal in Barcelona's elimination of SL Benfica in the '05-06 Champions League quarterfinals with a 2-0 home victory. After a 1-0 semifinal aggregate win over Milan, in which Ronaldinho assisted the series' only goal by Ludovic Giuly, Barcelona progressed to the Champions League final, which they won on 17 May 2006 with a 2-1 defeat of Arsenal. Two weeks earlier, Barcelona had clinched their second straight La Liga title with a 1-0 win over Celta Vigo, giving Ronaldinho his first career double. He finished the season with a career-best 26 goals in all competitions, and was named the 2005-06 Champions League Player of the Year.
On 25 November 2006, Ronaldinho scored his 50th career league goal against Villarreal, then later scored a second time with an overhead bicycle kick. He later said to reporters that the latter was a goal he had dreamed of scoring since he was a boy. He scored once and set up two others in Barcelona's 4-0 Club World Cup win over Mexico's Club América on 14 December, but Barcelona were defeated 1-0 by Brazilian club Internacional in the final. Ronaldinho was nonetheless the recipient of the Bronze Ball Award for the competition.
The next day, Ronaldinho finished third in the running for the 2006 FIFA World Player of the Year, behind World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and Zinedine Zidane. Ronaldinho was named among the UEFA Team of the Year for the third straight time in January 2007, receiving the highest number of votes with over 290,000 nominations. He was forced to miss a charity match on 13 March due to an injury he had picked up several days earlier in Barcelona's 3-3 El Clásico draw with Real Madrid.

He played his 200th career match for Barcelona in a league match against CA Osasuna on 3 February 2008. However, his 2007-08 campaign as a whole was plagued by injuries, and a muscle tear in his right leg on 3 April prematurely ended his season. On 19 May, Laporta stated that Ronaldinho needed a "new challenge," claiming that he needed a new club if he were to revive his career. Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra confirmed on 6 June that he was interested in acquiring him.
Ronaldinho and Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi each captained a team of international stars in an anti-racism exhibition match in Venezuela on 28 June, which ended in a 7-7 draw. Ronaldinho finished with a pair of goals and two assists in what would be his last match as a Barcelona player.

Milan:
In July 2008, Ronaldinho turned down a £25.5 million offer from Manchester City to join Italian Serie A giants Milan on a three-year contract thought to be worth around £5.1 million (€6.5 million) a year, for a fee in the region of £14.5 million (€18.5 million). With the number 10 already occupied by teammate Clarence Seedorf, he selected 80 as his jersey number, because 1980 was his birth year. Ronaldinho scored his first goal for Milan in a 1-0 derby victory over Internazionale on 28 September 2008, and his first brace was in a 3-0 win over Sampdoria on 19 October 2008. He scored a 93rd-minute match-winner against S.C. Braga in the UEFA Cup group stage on November 6.
He finished his first season at Milan with 10 goals from 32 appearances in all competitions. After a good start to the season, Ronaldinho struggled with fitness, and was often played from the bench to end a disappointing first season for Milan.
Since the departure of Kaka to Real Madrid, Ronaldinho was promised to play more of a role in Milan's campaign. After a slow start to the season, Ronaldinho is slowly starting to find the form that made him an international superstar with FC Barcelona.