WIPED THE SMILE
Ronaldinho has lost his famous smile in prison and has no luxury at all, reveals ex-Paraguay striker Nelson Cuevas
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BRAZIL icon Ronaldinho has lost his famous smile in prison and has no luxury at all, according to former Paraguay striker Nelson Cuevas.
The 2005 Ballon d'Or winner recently celebrated his 40th birthday with a huge BBQ behind bars after being arrested for allegedly using a fake passport to enter the country.
He was all smiles in the photo but friends who have visited the ex-Barcelona, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain hero say he is "sad".
Rivaldo has already expressed his 'concern and sadness' for his fellow World Cup-winning Brazilian, while former River Plate star Cuevas claims Ronaldinho “is not happy at all.”
He told CNN Radio: “Ronaldinho is not happy at all, what distinguishes him is his smile, his good energy, his way of being but today, due to the situation he is going through, that smile is lost because he is in prison which is a place he is not accustomed to.”
Ronaldinho and his brother Roberto de Assis are being kept in a ‘specialised unit’ – the part of a jail where high-profile people are sent to be kept apart from the rest of the prison population.
Paraguayan Minister of Interior Euclides Acevedo has said that the former Barcelona man is in “not a penitentiary but almost a hotel”.
Ronaldinho is not happy at all, what distinguishes him is his smile, his good energy, his way of being but today, due to the situation he is going through, that smile is lost
Nelson Cuevas
And footage has emerged of him taking part in a futsal tournament with other inmates.
Despite reports of Ronaldinho enjoying certain prison accommodations, Cuevas added: “There is no kind of luxury there.”
Ronaldinho has been warned he faces up to six months behind bars, with the investigation into his alleged use of fake passports underway.
And speaking about the incidents that landed his friend in prison, Cuevas said: “His brother knew these people, who are bad people.
“They got him in this bad situation and he fell flat on his back but authorities know that his biggest crime was not knowing what was going on.
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“What I could see is that he did not even know where he was, he doesn’t take care of those type of things, he has advisors who handle all of that.
“They tell him ‘get up’ and he gets up, they say ‘go there’ and he goes there. Personally I believe he is totally innocent.
“He is a victim of all this but at the same time, he committed a punishable crime, using real documents with falsified information that he was given and from there everything became complicated.”
Ronaldinho ‘to get six months in jail’ after ‘using a fake passport to enter Paraguay’
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