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This Filthy Pass From Ronaldinho Still Needs Explaining

This Filthy Pass From Ronaldinho Still Needs Explaining

Ronaldinho was an absolute joy to watch...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

For all of the magic he produced, it remains a great shame that one of Ronaldinho's most spectacular passages of play didn't result in a goal.

In rare footage that has been doing the rounds once again, the 2005 Ballon d'Or winner played an utterly outrageous pass into the path of Henrik Larsson when they two were playing for Barcelona.

If you needed to sum up Ronaldinho's playing style with one clip of him doing his thing on the pitch then this would be it. It's so carefree and casual but yet so utterly brilliantly audacious.

The Brazilian touched the ball down exquisitely on touchline after a crossfield pass was fired over to him, and then deftly knocked the ball past his opponent with his left peg.

Then, R10 conjured up one of the most satisfying passes ever seen when he cut across the ball and fizzed it right into the danger area for Larsson to latch onto.

Had the Swede been able to convert from close range, we'll be talking about one of the greatest assists ever seen. Fortunately Ronaldinho's highlight reel is so special that there's an array of incredible, jaw-dropping moments to make up for it.

But then again, so is Cristiano Ronaldo's and he was denied one of his greatest ever goals by teammate Nani - who ended up apologising to him.

Captaining the Portugal national team in a 4-0 win over world champions Spain back in 2010, Ronaldo sent former teammate Gerard Pique back to his loan spell with Real Zaragoza with the deftest of chops.

He then took another swift touch to keep the ball away from Xabi Alonso and beautifully scooped the ball over Iker Casillas.

As the ball was about to drop in, Nani headed it in and having been incorrectly deemed offside, the goal was chalked off and Ronaldo lost his head.

"I was not offside, if you see that video," Nani recalled years later, speaking to the UTD Podcast.

"But obviously I had no intention to take the goal from him. I told him 'Sorry' in that moment because it was a beautiful goal.

"And for me that goal still exists, you just need to cut out the part where I touched the ball! But thank God he doesn't need that goal to be who he is and he has so many goals to choose and still enjoy his career, and the fans as well."

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Topics: Football News, Ronaldinho, FC Barcelona, Football, Barcelona