Ronaldinho to become a Spanish citizen

By: Isaiah | August 23rd, 2007

Just a bit of good news for Barcelona fans: Ronaldinho will become a Spanish citizen on Monday, meaning that Gio Dos Santos will be able to officially join the first team and play in La Liga games regardless of whether or not he becomes a citizen. There are 3 non-EU spots available to La Liga teams* out of the 25 first-team squad members. While I suppose Giovani can be bumped up to the first-squad at any point and occupy one of those places, on Sunday against Athletic such a move would require one of Ronaldinho, Eto’o, or Toure being dropped, which I’m not sure is even legal because of contracts. And of course it would be idiotic to do for obvious reasons.

Regardless, come Monday the spot should open up and then supposedly on either Tuesday or Wednesday Gio himself will take the oath and become a Spanish citizen, meaning that Barcelona can go and buy some American player, right? I suggest Freddy Adu! God, I think I just puked in my mouth.

Also concerning Ronaldinho: he scored against Algeria yesterday, meaning that he got playing time. He was a second-half sub, but at least it shows that Dunga is learning a little something about putting his good players on the field. That they won the Copa America with his brand of ~~crap~~ soccer has disturbed my sleep for the last couple of months. I’m a sensitive soul, what can I say. The only problem with ‘Dinho returning to the canarinho fold is that he’ll be routinely called up during the season. Same goes for everyone else, though, so it’s not a big deal.

Oh and will Samuel Eto’o play on Sunday? He must be so tired right now, having flown to Japan and supposedly back already after playing yesterday (and almost scoring, but almost only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and thermonuclear warfare). Perhaps starting Henry is the way to go simply based on fatigue, especially with the game against Inter in midweek throwing things off. But, of course, Eto’o is a professional athlete and probably won’t as much trouble as my out-of-shape ass had dealing with time changes last time I went to the Midwest; hey, it’s an hour off, that’s a lot of time.

*Is this different from other leagues? I’m not actually sure.