Former world star and winner of the world player of the year title for two times, Ronaldinho finally answered his critics who have been long saying that forward’s days are gone. He helped Atletico Mineiro win the prestigious Copa Libertadores in the penalty shootout. This is the first time Libertadores could manage to triumph the title; they defeated Paraguayan opponents Olimpia in the penalty shootout. Actually, they were behind by 2-0 after the first leg in Asuncion and in this game they first equalized the lead during allotted time and then won by a 4-3 edge on penalty. The first goal of the match came within the second minute of second half when Ronaldinho’s cross brilliantly capitalized by Jo. It was Jo’s seventh one of the tournament making him among the top scorers of the tourney. With this achievement, Ronaldinho has joined the elite club of stars like Cafu, Roque Junior, Dida, Carlos Tevez, Walter Samuel, and Pablo Sorin after winning both Champions League and Copa Libertadores titles. Earlier, he has won Champions League playing for Barcelona back in 2005-06.
In the last couple of months, critics were targeting 33-year-old for his growing age and no fireworks since long in the field and he sealed their mouth in style. Throughout his long running career, this Brazilian had participated in some of the biggest achievements for his club and country, like winning 2002 world cup, champions’ trophy, and etc., but he was seriously missing an South America title and to make his dreams a reality, he came back to Brazil in 2011. After this match, he said, “This is the reason why I returned to Brazil. This is the one trophy that was still missing. Everyone said that I was finished and that my time was over. Let them talk now…”
As far Atletico Mineiro is concerned, it has always been one of the strongest clubs in Brazil but off late it was fast losing its threat of being a hard to defeat club. It was second in the last year’s Brazilian league, in fact, previously it won the domestic league back in 1971 and on international front; it could only manage to win CONMEBOL Cup on two occasions: 1992 and 1997. However, for Brazilians, it is rather a record that at least one Brazilian club has consecutively been qualifying for this mega event since last eight years. Anyway, let us congratulate to both Ronaldinho and his club for their action pack performance in the final.