AcesHigh

Well, the very little Santos got was not little. Grêmio did not get a single penny/cent for Ronaldinho.

Well, of course, most of them do not even know about that. And even if they knew it... do other players hate Van Persie (Arsenal to ManU), Torres (Liverpool to Chelsea), Neuer (Schalke to Bayern), Götze (Borussia to Bayern), Ibrahimovic (Inter to AC Milan), Tevez (United to City), etc? (just mentioned some recent cases, but there were bigger ones in the past, like Baggio from Fiorentina to Juventus, or Figo (Barcelona to Madrid) And notice that fans from those big european clubs hate their those players even though the clubs made millions in the transfer! Ronaldinho stabbed us in the back, fans AND the club, by signing a SECRET contract while he was actively telling the club to not worry with the contract renovation, because he loved the club and would pay for free. And then again, when returning to the country. Really, what would you think of let´s say, Drogba, if he had left for Tottenham? Or if Chelsea youth categories suddenly produced a player with potential to be the best in the world, and then in his contract renovation, he complicated things and did not sign, but saying for the club and the fans to not worry, he would play for free with Chelsea, and next week you turn on the TV and he is signing with Bayern Munchen without Chelsea getting a SINGLE PENNY for him?

He isn´t. Well, he is still earning money for playing. But certainly he is not playing enough for what he is earning. And compared to what he once was, he really is not playing anymore.

You clearly do not follow Brazilian football for wanting that scum in the brazilian squad. Sorry for calling your idol a scum, but to us Grêmio supporters, he is, for he betrayed Grêmio TWICE.How would you feel if a player betrayed Chelsea TWICE? But anyway, the reasons to leaving him out of the squad are unrelated to what he did to Grêmio, but simply to the fact that he has retired from football some 5 years ago and only pretends he still plays it. Last year he did well with Atlético Mineiro mainly because of Bernard. Since Bernard left the club to Shaktar Donetsk, Ronaldinho´s form has decayed even more. He is only AVERAGE in Brazil (which is a league weaker than the main ones in Europe), but he earns salaries that are way above the average for Brazil and impossibly high for the rest of South America (where top salaries are 10x smaller than in Brazil) even though Ronaldinho sucked at this year´s Libertadores. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ edit: if you are curious, Ronaldinho, who started on Grêmio youth levels (his father worked at Grêmio and his brother Assis played at Grêmio), was already a superstar in Brazil when he needed to renovate his contract with Grêmio. european teams were offering like 30-40 million dollars for Ronaldinho. Ronaldinho told IN BROADCASTED INTERVIEWS that Grêmio did not need to hurry with the renovation impasse, because it would all be solved and he would play at Grêmio even for free. a few days later, Ronaldinho took a plane to Paris, and signed with PSG. He had already signed, HIDDEN, a pre-contract with PSG. Grêmio did not get a SINGLE CENT for the best player to appear on the club since the early 80s. if that would hurt the finances of a club like Chelsea, imagine for a brazilian club. Grêmio had to fight for 3 years on FIFA courts until FIFA made PSG pay meager $4 million for Ronaldinho. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fast forward to 2006. Internacional, the Porto Alegre arch-rivals of Grêmio, won their first Libertadores (Grêmio had won in 83 and 95) and were going to play for the World Title against Ronaldinho´s Barcelona. Grêmio had won the World Title in 83 against Hamburg. Inter winning it was a disaster for Grêmio fans. True, Barça lost it for other reasons (Gudjohnsen at the attack!) and Ronaldinho did not play well... but still, that hurt Grêmio fans. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ fast forward again to the end of 2010. Ronaldinho will leave Milan and return to Brazil. He and his brother (and career manager) Assis talk with Grêmio´s president, and say Ronaldinho is interested in returning to Grêmio. They even shake hands. The president reveals the news and Grêmio fans, although suspicious, start liking the idea. The prodigal son to his home returns! Grêmio secures investors to pay a $1 million per month salary. Ronaldinho is interviewed and again says he WANTS to go back to Grêmio. But suddenly, news start coming from São Paulo that Ronaldinho is also dealing with Palmeiras. Then news from Rio de Janeiro that Ronaldinho is dealing with Flamengo. The president of Grêmio answers reporters that they had already closed the deal with Ronaldinho after they had dealt again with Assis, who had asked for more stuff, and Grêmio accepted the new terms. Then a few days later, Assis AGAIN returns to Grêmio with new terms, to which Grêmio AGAIN accepts. Soon, we discover that Ronaldinho and his brother are involved in a PUBLIC AUCTION!! They are secretly dealing with the 3 clubs. To each one they accept their terms, just to go to the other club, present the other club´s terms as their own demands, and as soon as that clubs accepts it, they go to the next club and ask even more. Rio media says Ronaldinho signed with Flamengo. Grêmio and Palmeiras are infuriated with it all and say they won´t negotiate with Ronaldinho anymore. Ronaldinho goes to TV to public announce he signed with Flamengo. ----------------------------------------------------------------- fast forward to october 2011 Ronaldinho will play for the first time against Grêmio, for Flamengo, at Grêmio´s old Estádio Olímpico. check out the booing when the announcer prepares to say Ronaldinho´s name (he in fact says it but we can´t even hear it!). Followed by the entire stadium chanting PILANTRA! (Crook)

sorry, english is not my first language, and the latin root has the "m" (that´s why it´s "abysMal". you are right about the Europa League, and even so, I think the Premier is still beter because there is more competition between the clubs. doesn´t matter how good the teams are, I simply refuse to watch a league where the same club, or same two clubs, win every season.

well, life goes on. Tonite must root for another blue team, in a continental league, facing an opponent who has support of the Pope, who also baptized and blessed their main striker.

too bad La Liga has an abysm between the teams at the top (which 99,99% of times are always the same) and all the rest. the Premier League is much better, specially now that Manchester United is struggling.

they play like a Libertadores club. With more money.

the biggest mistery of Chelsea right now is the fall of Oscar. Imho, as I already said, he has his mind in the World Cup. Mourinho noticed it.

They are not a decadent tiki-taka team like Barcelona and Bayern Munchen. Anyway, what were the results of all the Atletico Madrid x Real Madrid matches this season?

the Premier League this year is the best in a long time due to the competition. Bundesliga is more boring than never, due to Bayern total dominance. and La Liga??? Only Real Madrid and Barcelona have any chances there, because they earn like 80% of all La Liga tv deals. Atletico winning this year is something extraordinary. Simeone is a master for achieving that considering the money Real Madrid and Barça have.

i was not watching right then, but I heard William was crying when he left the field. Can anyone confirm it?

I think this photo shows the dense area where Arena da Baixada is located

Gremio Arena, Beira Rio, Allianz Park, Arena Corinthians and Arena da Baixada are private. the others are public but it´s states/cities money. The total sum of money spent on the public stadiums is about 3.5 billion dollars.

Allianz Park (Palmeiras Stadium, also in São Paulo, as Arena Corinthians)

BONUS - World Cup class stadiums that will not be in the Cup (except as training grounds) Grêmio Arena (Porto Alegre, same city as Beira Rio)

Arena Corinthians

Arena da Baixada

Arena Pantanal

Arena da Amazônia

Arena das Dunas

the 6 other stadiums, completed this year. Beira Rio

found these good aerial images of the Arena Pernambuco... the city of Recife, in the background

How much posts until next page? I need to post photos of the other 6 stadiums, but I am afraid posting on this same page can make viewing difficult for mobile users and the ones with low video memory, etc.

Brasilia is a planned city built in the 60s. The area where the stadium is built was already designed to have that free space and the new stadium was built over an old one. Arena Pernambuco was built on the very outskirts of the city, VERY FAR from downtown Recife. Fonte Nova is a very old stadium that was demolished and rebuilt. The park space around was already there. Maracanã was built for the 1950 World Cup. So there was more space in that area of Rio to build the complex. Mineirão was built in the 60s. Some 10km north of Belo Horizonte´s downtown. In that time, the area had almost no settlement, and a huge park with the stadium was built there. Castelão was also built several decades ago, somewhat far from denser areas. Plus, all of these first 6 stadiums are PUBLIC (usually belong to municipalities or state governments). That means they were built in areas that either already belonged to the government and had not been opened to private development, or that a lot public money was used to buy areas/resettle people. When I post the other 6 stadiums (plus two bonus modern stadiums that are not in the World Cup), a few are private, and you will see two stadiums in very dense areas. (Allianz Park and Arena da Baixada)