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Ronaldinho signed for Barcelona 20 years ago today and his skills at the transfer presentation are still insane
Home>Football>La Liga>FC Barcelona
Updated 11:48 9 Jul 2026 GMT+1Published 10:27 19 Jul 2023 GMT+1

Ronaldinho signed for Barcelona 20 years ago today and his skills at the transfer presentation are still insane

Ronaldinho is one of the most iconic players of all time and his start to life at Barcelona was quite something.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

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Ronaldinho moved to Barcelona 20 years ago today and his presentation at the Nou Camp is still a joy to behold two decades later.

There are few more iconic players than Ronaldinho especially during his time at Barcelona where he became one of the greatest players on earth.

The Brazilian remains many people's favourite ever players due to the pure joy he elicited and the joie de vivre in which he played the game.

He'd impressed at two years with PSG and was being tracked by Manchester United but Joan Laporta made it his mission to sign Ronaldinho as part of his presidential campaign.

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Laporta beat United to the signing, which arguably led the club to signing Cristiano Ronaldo so it wasn't all bad news for them, and the former Gremio man joined for £21 million.

He would go on to win two La Liga titles and the Champions League with the Catalan giants and produced many amazing individual moments.

But even at his transfer presentation at the Nou Camp on his first day at the club fans were treated to the kind of highlights they were going to get used to.

In front of thousands of fans, the new signing was at ease juggling the ball on his knees, feet and head, then pulled off the 'round the world,' balanced the ball on all sorts of body parts and then struck the ball into the stands.

You might not think that it's all that impressive to juggle the ball about a bit in front of a few thousand adoring fans, but you'd be surprised.

Not everyone manages to act as cool and calm under that pressure with Sergino Dest messing up his official presentation struggling to do even the easiest of the tricks Ronaldinho managed.

Following the World Cup winner's presentation he went on to make one of the most bizarre home debuts ever, in a game against Sevilla.

Barca tried to get the game delayed because their latest star was on his way back from international duty but their opponents weren't having it.

The only compromise was having the match kick off after midnight, with Ronaldinho going on to score his first goal for the club.

From moment one we knew his time in Barcelona was going to be a success, 20 years later and it's still well worth remembering!

Featured Image Credit: FC Barcelona/YouTube

Topics: Football, Ronaldinho, La Liga, Spain, FC Barcelona

Ryan Sidle
Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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@Sidler28

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